OC LIVE : Buddy System Works Fine for Childers, Greco

We’re seeing a lot more of trumpeter Buddy Childers now that he’s quit one of the most visible positions for an instrumentalist in the music business.

Sound like a contradiction? Not really. Childers has been playing more around Southern California clubs, including Kikuya in Huntington Beach, since resigning his position as musical director and trumpeter for Frank Sinatra Jr.’s orchestra almost two years ago. Sunday, Childers’ big band appears at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa with singer-pianist Buddy Greco.

Now, you may not think there would be all that much visibility working for Sinatra Jr. But that Frank is also musical director for his father, Ol’ Blue Eyes himself. And he pretty much brings in the same band for his father as he does for his appearances, which made Childers lead trumpeter for the Frank Sinatra for nearly 10 years.

Despite his decade in the orchestra (and a credit on Sinatra’s big-selling “Duets” album), and the rumored respect Sinatra Sr. allegedly carries for his musicians, the singer “doesn’t know I exist,” Childers says in a phone interview from his San Fernando Valley home. “He’s unaware of a lot of [musicians’] existence.

“My business was with Frank Jr., a good friend and the person responsible for my being in the band. He’s the best boss I’ve ever had in the music business, a person who really treats musicians with respect,” Childers said. “We’re still good friends.”

But Childers, the 69-year-old who just shy of his 17th birthday joined Stan Kenton’s band, was ready to move on.

“I’d had it. It had been 10 years on the road, and things weren’t getting any better. [Sinatra Jr.] and I were headed in different directions. I pushed us more toward being a jazz act, and he was looking to more commercial things. We were from different backgrounds.

“So I looked at what I had coming in, from pensions and whatever, and [realized] I didn’t need the Sinatra band,” he said. “But there are no hard feelings.”

The Sinatra connection figures in the story of how Childers came to associate with singer-pianist and Las Vegas entertainer Greco.

“Though we both worked in Las Vegas a lot, I’d never worked with Buddy before our show at the Moonlight Tango [in Sherman Oaks] last August.” (They’ll play the Sherman Oaks nightspot again Tuesday.)

“But we were playing the same place, the Desert Inn, when I was with Sinatra, and Buddy came in and heard the act. It was Buddy’s idea we get together. He called me and said he’d been looking for somebody to lead a band that would be enough of a draw that there’d be a line down the sidewalk to get in. And that’s what happened when we did Moonlight Tango.”

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In addition to teaming with Greco, Childers has been using his time wisely since quitting the Sinatra band, filling his days with recording, practicing, arranging music and leading his big band and a combo.

Childers has two newly recorded albums scheduled for release this year, both on the U.K.-based Candid label.

One features music from film and television composer Russ Garcia that finds Childers, playing fluegelhorn, matched with a string section. Its title, “Come Home Again,” suggests Childers’ return to the jazz world.

The second is a quintet album that features bassist John Leitham, pianist Brian O’Rourke, drummer Paul Kreibich and valve trombonist Jimmy Zito.

Warner Bros.’ Trend label has also reissued Childers’ 1986 big-band release, “Just Buddy’s,” which includes bassist (and Orange County resident) Art Davis.

Childers is trying to secure the master tapes from another big-band date he did for the Trend/Discovery label so that it can be reissued on the Seabreeze label. “If I get those masters, the CD will be out the next day,” he joked.

And Childers has also been working on music for yet another big-band album.

“Albert Marx [he late president of Trend/Discovery records] wanted another recording after ‘Just Buddy’s,’ but I just didn’t have the material. I was on the road with both Sinatras and didn’t have the time to put something together. Now I have the material for that album.” He said he plans to record it this winter.

Big bands have been a fixture on the Childers resume since he joined the Kenton band in 1943.

“It was quite an experience, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody,” he said with a laugh. “The guys in the band loved me when I auditioned--couldn’t believe that a young guy could play like that.

“But when I joined the band, they resented me. I hadn’t paid my dues, and they gave me a terrible time,” he said. “And they had every reason. I was such a hick, such a sucker, and I believed everything they told me because they were my idols. And these guys knew they shouldn’t be anybody’s idols. So they took it out on me.”

During and after his on-again-off-again stint with Kenton, Childers also worked for the bands of Benny Carter, Les Brown, Woody Herman, Tommy Dorsey, Oliver Nelson and Quincy Jones. He recorded with the Lew Tabackin-Toshiko Akiyoshi orchestra, as well as recording his own albums, including the 1955 “Buddy Childers Quintet” album for Liberty.

Even though he has worked with a host of vocalists over the years, including the Sinatras, he says, “I hate singers, except for Ernie Andrews and some others. I love Della Reese.”

From there, he goes on to list various vocalists he admires, making it apparent he doesn’t hate singers at all.

“I guess it’s a case of calling the kettle black. It’s the resentment that comes from knowing that, without them, I don’t have a job a lot of the time.

“You’ve heard that saying, ‘If it doesn’t have words, it’s not music.’ That’s a terrible thing, but most of the public feels that way. A musician’s talents aren’t worth a dime without the singer.”

When he teams with Greco--a benefit to raise funds to enclose the lobby of OCC’s Robert B. Moore Theatre--Childers will get the both of best worlds.

“My band will do the first half of the show. Then the band will back Buddy for the second half. He conducts, plays the piano, but I’ll stick around in case he needs me, take some solos,” he said. “He has a marvelous book written by guitarist Joe Lano. We’ll have a lot of fun.”

* Who: “The Two Buddys” with the Buddy Childers Big Band and Buddy Greco.

* When: Sunday, Jan. 7, 4 p.m.

* Where: Robert B. Moore Theatre, Orange Coast College, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa.

* Whereabouts: The San Diego Freeway to Fairview exit; south to Orange Coast College.

* Wherewithal: $20 in advance, $25 at the door.

* Where to call: (714) 432-5880.