52ND STREET JIVE PROVES THAT IT CAN PLAY IT ALL

SAN DIEGO —  It’s a few minutes past 9 on a Friday night and already, the Fat City nightclub on Pacific Highway is as crowded as any French Quarter pub in New Orleans around Mardi Gras time.

This is Harvey and the 52nd Street Jive’s first night back on stage after a five-month sabbatical, and judging from the turnout, it’s apparent they haven’t been forgotten.

Moments later, the four band members, in matching black tuxedos, warm up with a mellifluous version of Duke Ellington’s “Take the ‘A’ Train.”

Meanwhile, singer Harvey--his last name is Williams, but he doesn’t use it--leans against the brass-railed Victorian bar in the rear of the room. With a laugh, he tells a reporter how difficult it is to categorize his group.

“People try to say we’re a jazz band and that doesn’t work,” said Harvey, who has been appearing at Fat City practically every weekend for more than five years.

“They try to say we specialize in Swing, or Motown, or old rock ‘n’ roll, and that doesn’t work either,” he said. “Quite simply, we do it all.

“We’re like one of those New Orleans street bands. We’ll play just about anything from the 1930s through the ‘60s, as long as it’s up, as long as it’s fun.

“If it’s fun, I can feel it. And if I can feel it, so can the audience.”

After the band plays a couple more Swing Era instrumentals, Harvey marches up on stage.

Turning to face the crowd, he grabs the microphone and starts singing another jazz oldie, “I Got Rhythm.” His strong, clear voice is commanding, yet tender. His vocal style is patterned after jazz singers from Al Jolson to Al Jarreau.

With every song, Harvey fades from one musical persona into the next as gracefully, as subtly, as a chameleon changes colors.

On “Mack the Knife,” he becomes a sinister Bobby Darin, snapping his fingers and spitting out syllables as though they were poison. On “Down on the Corner,” he becomes a grinning John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival, enticing the crowd to sing along and clap until their hands are red.

Harvey is as boyishly exuberant as David Ruffin of the Temptations on “My Girl”; he’s as sexy as Frank Sinatra on “As Time Goes By”; he’s as brash as Ray Charles on “What’d I Say?”

And the entire time, the 52nd Street Jive--Oliver Shirley on bass, John Nau on keyboards, Hugh O’Neil on drums and Chris Klich on clarinet, flute and saxophone--repeatedly shifts musical gears between low and overdrive with the spontaneous tenacity of a veteran truck driver.

“We’re a show band, a fun band, and we never get too serious,” said Harvey, who won’t give his age. “We encourage everyone to participate; we’re not the kind of group you just sit there and watch.”

Harvey is a relative newcomer to show business. After 10 years of working for the federal government as an office manager in his native Dayton, Ohio, he moved to San Diego in 1981 and took a job managing the Lion’s clothing store in Fashion Valley.

“One day a lady customer heard me singing to myself in the store,” Harvey said. “She told me I had a talent, but if I didn’t use it, I’d lose it.

“So just like that, I put together a band. Within a couple of months, we were ready to look for work, and as soon as we landed this job at Fat City, I quit the retail business for good.”

Aside from their regular weekend gigs at Fat City, Harvey and 52nd Street Jive play free outdoor concerts at Seaport Village on the first Sunday of every month.

Several times each year, they venture out of San Diego and appear in nightclubs in Los Angeles and Palm Springs. In January, they opened for Ray Charles at a national convention for television programming executives in New Orleans.

And they frequently perform at benefits for such local charities as the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation and the Sharp Hospitals Foundation.

Unlike most San Diego nightclub musicians, Harvey said, he is perfectly content to remain right where he is. He’s not looking for a big-money record deal or a hit single--he simply wants to have fun.

“There’s a whole lot of wonderful music out there that we tend to forget, and I’d rather be playing that than original songs,” he said.