KPFK Spotlights Tenor Sax Giant Hawkins; Acclaimed Guitarist Frisell Makes L.A. Debut

HAWKINS RADIO SPECIAL: Tenor saxophone giant Coleman Hawkins will be spotlighted in a multi-part series produced by disc jockey Jay Green and airing Thurdays, noon-2 p.m., through August on KPFK-FM (90.7). In addition to music featuring Hawkins, who died in 1969, the continuing program features interviews with musicians and critics, among them the late, great saxman Eddie (Lockjaw) Davis, pianist Horace Silver and jazz critic Leonard Feather. Green plans to begin the series Thursday with an out-of-print interview that was conducted with Hawkins in the ‘50s and was released on Riverside Records. Information: (818) 985-2711.

ECLECTIC GUITARIST: Since the critically acclaimed contemporary guitarist Bill Frisell names the likes of Charles Ives, Prince, Jimi Hendrix, Wes Montgomery and Sonny Rollins as influences, it’s not surprising that his music ranges from start-and-stop-on-a-dime thrash rock and rhapsodic tangos to Ornette Coleman-esque blues and plain hillbilly ditties. It also follows that Frisell, whose band makes its Los Angeles debut Sunday at At My Place in Santa Monica, won’t pigeon-hole himself when asked to describe his style.

“I can’t. I mean not at this point,” he said from his home in Hoboken, N.J. “There were times when it was easy to say . . . I was copying a certain person, like when I was into being Jim Hall, but lately it’s just a combination of so many things. I try not to shut out anything.”

Frisell’s 4-year-old band--Hank Roberts on cello, Kermit Driscoll on electric bass and Joey Baron on drums--is featured on his latest release, “Before We Were Born” (Elektra/Musician). It makes an ideal ensemble, he said, though not one that came together overnight.

“It took me a long time, years, thinking about a band,” he said. “I wanted something that was a little bit different and I needed to find people that could go in a lot of directions. I think I chose these people more for their personalities than their instruments.”

This spring, the 38-year-old guitarist took his band on a six-week tour through Europe and while he said it was a grueling experience--”It seemed like we were always getting up at 6 a.m. to catch a train”--it also was immensely rewarding.

“It was so exciting for me because everyday the music got better,” he said. “We hadn’t played that much, maybe a gig every few months. It’s been hard to get momentum, so this tour was very encouraging. We needed to play.”

Though Frisell has appeared on 50 LPs in his 11 years as a pro, teaming up with drummer Paul Motian, altoist John Zorn and keyboardist Lyle Mays, he said he intends to collaborate less in the future.

“While I thrive on playing with other people’s bands, now it feels like the time to stand up by myself and see what I can do with all this information I’ve been picking from others, see if I can make it into something of my own.”

SCREEN SIGNING: Bay Area-based jazz singer Scotty Wright, who appears tonight and Thursday at the Vine Street Bar & Grill, recently made his screen debut as a saloon ragtime pianist-singer in “Bad Jim,” a Clyde Ware-directed-and-written Western starring James Brolin, Richard Roundtree and John Clark Gable that is slated for a fall release from 21st Century.

Ware liked Wright’s performance enough that he’s also signed the singer to play the lead role in “Bojangles: The Bill Robinson Story.” The film, based on the life of the famed tap dancer, will be produced by Joseph Wouk and directed-written by Ware. “I’ll have to dust my dancing shoes off for that one,” said Wright, whose debut LP is “Too Much Fun.”

****”Looking In Looking Out” (Nine Winds) from reed artist Kim Richmond’s Los Angeles-based Ensemble successfully stretches across many musical bounderies. The leader’s cabernet-colored alto sound shimmers on “Trains,” a nod to ‘60s modality, and “I Thought About You,” a straight-forward, blushing ballad. Richmond’s wind synthesizer is backed by drum thunder from Billy Mintz on the thickly-orchestrated “Franz,” while “Nardis” and “Solar” exhibit unfettered blowing from saxman John Gross and trombonist Mike Fahn, among others.

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