Guitarist Russ Freeman Named His Band After Its ‘Really Ripping’ Jazz Fusion Sound

When a jazz fusion band called the Rippingtons is led by a guitarist/composer named Russ Freeman, one can’t help but ask the obvious question: Where did the name come from? Is it a respectful identification with a long-gone but highly respected uncle? Or maybe a slightly enigmatic English reference--as in “Jack the Rippington?”

Turns out that the real answer is a lot more to the point. “I just felt,” Freeman explained earlier this week, “that when this band got cooking, the music was really ‘ripping,’ and the name just followed. Simple as that.” Local listeners can see just how ripping things get tonight when the band plays the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano.

Until a couple of years ago, Freeman had been chipping happily away at a respectable career as a studio musician. The son of a well-known scientist and medical researcher, he spent his early years in Nashville working the country music circuit before moving to Los Angeles to study at Cal Arts.

“But (the school) was a real flaky place,” he recalls. “So I quit and started just playing whatever kinds of gigs I could find.”

When he began to hear players such as Larry Carlton, George Benson and the Crusaders, he knew which way his music had to go. “The funny thing,” he said, “is that that’s the time, when I was still playing country music gigs to make a living, that I began writing the kind of music I’m writing now for the band.”

An album entitled “Nocturnal Playground” was Freeman’s first breakthrough. Despite its release on a virtually unknown record label, it attracted a small firestorm of attention. It was followed by “Moonlighting,” a quickly assembled project in which Freeman gathered some of his musical buddies including Kenny G, David Benoit and Brandon Fields. Unable because of contractual obligations to use his own name, Freeman came up with “the Rippingtons” and suddenly found himself with both a hit album and a nom de guerre.

Despite the presence of his luminary friends, the Rippingtons were clearly Freeman’s creation--a kind of all-star audio/visual presentation of his compositions. “In the beginning, I kind of liked the way it was,” Freeman said. “I wanted to diffuse the whole solo artist thing and not get a lot of personal attention.

“Then, when the group became successful, I still liked the umbrella of privacy that I got from it--the anonymity of not having a crowd around me whenever we came off the stand.” More recently, however, Freeman has had some second thoughts.

“It began,” he said, “when I noticed that Rippingtons’ songs were being used on a lot of the magazine-format TV shows, and I began to get a lot of action on my music publishing but no calls for any TV composing. At that point I began to realize that all the privacy could be a liability because producers seemed to know the Rippingtons but they didn’t know me--even though they were using my music.”

Freeman has taken the first giant step toward the spotlight by signing a new recording contract with nationally distributed GRP Records. His first album on the label, “Tourist in Paradise,” is due May 15, and tonight’s program will feature Freeman and the Rippingtons previewing many of the pieces from it.

“The Coach House is my favorite place to play in the United States,” Freeman said. “And I wanted to take in a bunch of new music to give our fans down in Orange County the first chance to hear it. It’s been a little tough to rehearse for a live performance at the same time we’re making a record, but I think the results will be worth it.”

The group he will bring to the Coach House is almost identical to the one on the recording. It will include Tony Morales on drums, Steve Baile on bass, Steve Reid on percussion, Brandon Fields on sax and Mark Portman on keyboards.

“There’s a real psychology,” Freeman said, “to working with such super players and sharing in their performances. I’ll never be able to play the drums. But working with a drummer like Tony Morales--in the studio, as well as on stage--hearing him perform my music, is almost like having the experience of playing the drums myself. And that’s true of the other instruments and the other players as well.

“That’s one of the joys of having the Rippingtons--and one of the reasons I’m so happy to be doing exactly what I’m doing, right here and right now.”

The Rippingtons play tonight at 8 and 10:30 at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. Tickets: $15. Information: (714) 496-8930.