John Klemmer

Last weekend, just over the hill from the Hollywood Bowl where 18,000 jazz fans were partying down at the Playboy Jazz Festival, a much smaller audience squeezed into the dim confines of a nightclub to see composer-saxophonist John Klemmer. In the past, Klemmer had often played in front of crowds as large as the one packing up to leave the Bowl. Now he was tuning up a new band after being virtually invisible for a decade. Where had he been and what had he been doing, people wondered.

Last weekend, just over the hill from the Hollywood Bowl where 18,000 jazz fans were partying down at the Playboy Jazz Festival, a much smaller audience squeezed into the dim confines of a nightclub to see composer-saxophonist John Klemmer. In the past, Klemmer had often played in front of crowds as large as the one packing up to leave the Bowl. Now he was tuning up a new band after being virtually invisible for a decade. Where had he been and what had he been doing, people wondered.

Trumpeter/composer Mark Isham's recent forays into film scoring ("Never Cry Wolf," "Mrs. Soffel," "The Life and Times of Harvey Milk") have caused a forced hiatus from live performing.

College radio stations have always been known as the last frontier for the new, the untried and the eclectic in broadcasting. Unlike commercial radio stations, which are more inclined to stick with the hits, college radio is open to anything and everything that comes out on vinyl, from the avant-garde jazz of Air and Old and New Dreams to the hard-core punk rock of The Damned, Black Flag, and The Circle Jerks. One of college radio's most important functions is introducing new performers.

No radio station has so defined a style of music as has KTWV-FM (94.7) "The Wave." The station, which celebrated its 10th anniversary with a concert Saturday at the L.A. Tennis Center on the UCLA campus, literally created the easy-listening radio format of soft jazz and pop ballads that has become known as New Adult Contemporary.

Mose Allison is cool. He's hip. In some ways, he's a Great White Blues Singer. But he's more than that. His unpredictable piano solos might include 10 bars or 100 of percussive bursts mixed with light dashes up and down the keyboard. His laid-back, well-seasoned voice has been a role model for younger singers in search of something a little different. Allison doesn't have the raw tools of, say, a Mel Torme or a Bobby McFerrin.

These days, it's not easy to break in as a young tenor saxophonist, especially when you have players like Joshua Redman and James Carter getting lots of attention and work. But Teodross Avery just may have the stuff to run with the leaders. The 22-year-old tenor saxophonist--whose first name is pronounced "Tea-OH-drohz"--makes his Los Angeles debut Monday through Wednesday when he guests with Black/Note at Catalina Bar & Grill in Hollywood. Avery possesses a startling facility on his instrument.

Three of San Diego's best--but least-known--jazz bands will play the Jewish Community Center in La Jolla Sunday night for "Jazz at the J." Two of them--Joy of Sax and the Mellotones--rarely perform at public concerts. The musicians might not have star status, but their music holds its own with the best. The groups represent a veritable history of jazz music. The Mellotones focus on Duke Ellington's music. Joy of Sax tackles both standards and modern jazz of the '50s and '60s.

Camille Porske, lead singer and songwriter of the band Camille's Blues Box, is not one to just sit around and wait for rock stardom to come to her. She's busy. Besides fronting the band, which is playing at Duffy's in Glendale this Saturday, she's busy writing new material for the group's second CD and promoting its first album, "Anything That Means Everything." The album was released last month on Real Soul Records, a company Porske runs out of her home. "I have a lot of goals," Porske says.

When Roger McGuinn takes the stage at Humphrey's on Thursday night, he's going to give San Diego a taste of what he's been up to since he grounded the Byrds, for good, more than a decade ago. He'll sing and play songs from his solo albums, ranging from sea chanteys like "Jolly Roger" and "Jack Tarr the Sailor" to such introspective love songs as "Russian Hill," written with Bob Dylan collaborator Jacques Levy.

Thanks to Voice of America, pianist Milcho Leviev got hooked on jazz as a youngster growing up in Bulgaria during the early 1950s. "The only way to get a jazz education was via Voice of America," said Leviev, who teams up with locals Holly Hoffman on flute and Bob Magnusson on bass at the Horton Grand Hotel at 8:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. "In eastern Europe, VOA disc jockey Willis Conover is the messiah of jazz. He plays everything, from the old stuff to Ornette Coleman."