How many elephants have you ever seen...

How many elephants have you ever seen tap dance? Such a gymnastic feat would not be much less plausible than what Bill Watrous has been accomplishing for 30 years or so with the trombone, one of the most elephantine of jazz instruments. Bucking the odds, Watrous, who will play the Jazz Note in Pacific Beach on Thursday through Sunday nights, has, with Ray Anderson and a very few others, helped transform the trombone into a respected lead instrument.

“That’s a real trick on the trombone,” said Watrous, who lives in Shadow Hills, a Los Angeles suburb. “By nature, it’s a very cumbersome tool. Over the years, most players have played in what I call an ‘ugga-mugga’ fashion. Most of the players go, ‘Brack!’--that’s the sound they make, sort of a splatty sound.”

Watrous, on the other hand, is known for the amazing control he brings to this cumbersome instrument, wielding it with the lightness and facility of a trumpet player. He earned a Grammy for his 1986 recording, “Someplace Else,” and was nominated again in 1988 for “Reflection”--an album on which, he notes, “I made my debut as a vocalist and jazz whistler.”

On a new album of jazz standards, due for release later this year, Watrous, 52, believes he takes the horn to a new plateau.

“I’ve approached the music like a vocalist would,” he explained. Playing the delicate melodies of popular ballads and jazz standards on a trombone is, Watrous acknowledged, “A special art that very, very few have. It’s very shocking when people come to hear a player who can do that on a trombone, because it doesn’t look like an instrument that could lend itself to that. But it’s my stock in trade. I render serious melodic statements in a sensitive manner.”

Watrous grew up in Connecticut around a trombone player--his father played one, although not in jazz bands. Watrous hit his professional stride in the 1960s, playing and recording with Quincy Jones, Roy Eldridge, Kai Winding, Woody Herman and Count Basie, and working as a studio musician on a variety of television programs, including Dick Cavett’s from 1968-70.

Watrous’ last release was “Smooth Talk,” which came out last year on the European Jazz Sound label. At the Jazz Note, he will be joined by bassist Marshall Hawkins and an as-yet-to-be-named drummer and pianist.

Musicians Local 325, which has often been criticized by some of its 1,200 members for not offering much in exchange for the $78 annual membership dues, now has its own booking service. Some members report good results. Guitarist Jim Storey, for example, landed a trial run on for his trio on Thursday nights this month at The Barb, a tiny barbecue joint on Turquoise Street in Pacific Beach, with the help of union talent coordinator Richard Ciavarelli. Working out of an office at the union’s headquarters on Morena Boulevard in San Diego, Ciavarelli will seek work for any members who provide him with a photo, bio and demo tape. Of the union’s 200 to 300 full-time jazz players, Ciavarelli said he is working with 20 to 30 so far, including Steve Dillard, Adam Wolf and South Market Street. If Ciavarelli succeeds at drumming up new work for union members, his efforts could go a long way toward improving the union’s image.

For the past nine years, Kevin Hellman produced the North County Music Awards, sponsored by the North County Entertainer tabloid. This year, though, Hellman is on his own, producing the first San Diego Music Awards program, with bronze sheet-music plaques to be handed out Aug. 19 at Sherwood Auditorium in La Jolla. Hellman wouldn’t say much about his split with the publication, but indicated it was not entirely amicable. North County Entertainer publisher Paul Hentschl is on vacation, and editor Donovan Roche said Friday he was unsure whether the newspaper will produce an awards show of its own this year.

The North County awards program was traditionally held at the La Paloma Theater in Encinitas; last year’s event took place in September.

Hellman’s new program, which he hopes could eventually attain the status of the popular Bay Area Music awards (or “Bammies”), sounds promising, but it is noticeably lacking in legitimate jazz. This year’s nominees in the jazz category are Mark Lessman, Hank Easton, Reel to Real, Peter Sprague and Fattburger--all competent players, but none, except Sprague, working in a true jazz vein. Meanwhile, such legitimate jazz nominees as James Moody, Joe Garrison, Mike Wofford, Charles McPherson, Jimmy Noone and Anthony Ortega didn’t make the final cut, which was based on the number of nominations received. Hellman admits his program is lacking in genuine jazz, and hopes to split the jazz portion of the ballot into “jazz” and “light jazz” categories next year.

RIFFS: San Diego guitarist Hank Easton has a new manager--Scott Chasen of Creative Management in San Diego--and is about to hit recording companies again with a slick, new promotional package, including his excellent self-produced CD, with an eye on a recording deal. Meanwhile, Easton has been experimenting with a little blues alongside his jazz and pop jazz. On Monday night from 8 to midnight, for example, Easton and his band will be joined by Bonnie Raitt-style singer Maureen Foley at Humphrey’s. . . .

San Diego flutist Holly Hofmann leaves next week for an East Coast tour, including several dates in New York City and her first-ever appearance at the Lincoln Center in Washington on Aug. 11, where her group will share a bill with Herbie Mann and Dave Valentin. . . .

Percussionist Jaime Moran plays Friday and Saturday nights from 9 to 1 at the Guadalajara Grill in Old Town with a group including the phenomenally versatile San Diego reedman-guitarist Dave Millard.

CRITIC’S CHOICE: JAIME VALLE AT SAN DIEGO CITY COLLEGE

With recording labels dillydallying in deciding whether or not they are interested in San Diego jazz guitarist Jaime Valle, Valle has taken matters into his own hands. He’s putting up the money to produce 500 CDs and 500 cassettes of a recording he made with well-known jazzmen Alex Acuna, Ernie Watts and Dave Valentin, due for release this summer. Valle is a talented songwriter, but most recently he has been concentrating on reworking jazz and popular standards such as “Over the Rainbow,” “Round Midnight” and “Body and Soul,” with his own Latin slant. Valle’s quartet and special guest Manzo Hill will play the San Diego City College “Jazz Live” series tonight from 8 to 10 in the campus theater on C Street. The music will be simulcast on KSDS-FM (88.3). You can also catch Valle on Friday nights this month at the Embassy Suites Hotel downtown, plus Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings at the B St. Cafe downtown.