Some sweet music

Joyce Scherer

It was the early 1960s and Costa Mesa’s Honey Bucket -- with its

darkly draped ceilings and smoke-filled air -- boasted a steady lineup of

traditional jazz groups including South Frisco Jazz Band.

“The Honey Bucket was on the corner of 19th Street and Placentia

Avenue. Really a neat place,” recalled Costa Mesa’s Vince Saunders, who

founded the South Frisco Jazz Band after his 1956 graduation from

Huntington Beach High School.

“There was no dancing, just beer and peanuts, and the smoke, well you

could cut it with a knife,” said the 64-year-old.

The Honey Bucket is long gone, but Saunders’ eight-piece jazz band has

endured for 45 years. And when the four-day Costa Mesa/Orange County

Classic Jazz Festival hits the Hilton Costa Mesa and the Holiday Inn

across the street this Thursday, jazz aficionados will have a chance to

hear the sounds of South Frisco along with 19 other classic jazz bands.

The event offers dancing, poolside venues, Sunday morning gospel concerts

and a tribute to Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong.

One group generating interest is the five-piece Siberian Dixieland

Jazz Band traveling from Novosibirsk, Russia. It is the band’s first time

in the United States said manager-interpreter Olga Reimer, who added that

jazz was once considered “the enemy’s music.”

“Jazz was not always welcomed in the Soviet Union, though it was not

strictly prohibited. Musicians were able to play jazz unofficially, but

they were not paid,” she said. “Jazz musicians were not prosecuted, but

were invited sporadically to the KGB offices to give explanations on why

they kept playing the music of the enemy.”

Today, Reimer says, jazz seems to be popular with baby boomers and a

core of “intellectual youth.”

And though South Frisco didn’t have to cross a continent or wade

through red tape to reach the festival, the event is definitely more than

just another gig for the band, which reflects the two-cornet sound of

King Oliver’s 1923 Creole Jazz Band and Lu Watters 1940s Yerba Buena Jazz

Band. It is what banjoist Saunders refers to as a reunion, considering

the band officially retired in 1998 after 42 years of worldwide

performances.

“It will be great to see the old gang again,” Saunders said. “And we

have people coming from all over the United States just to hear us

perform again. Really, it is just the pleasure of playing and remembering

the good times.”

Saunders said several of the members have been with the band for about

40 years, with the others not far behind. Two live in Illinois and the

others reside in Northern and Southern California.

But the new kid on the block is Costa Mesa’s Bryan Shaw, one of the

two horn players. For the 47-year-old Shaw, a Newport Harbor High

graduate, playing with South Frisco is like coming full circle in his

musical career.

“In the late 1960s and early 1970s, I used to ride my bike or get a

bunch of the seniors to haul us to the Pizza Palace in Huntington Beach

after the football games to hear South Frisco play,” Shaw said. “The band

was very creative and exciting, and I considered them my mentors.”

Shaw, who has played the cornet since fourth grade, was motivated by

South Frisco to start his own Back Bay Jazz Band in the 1970s with fellow

musician Dan Barrett. Since then, Shaw has gone on to perform with such

bands as Misbehavin’ and High Sierra, along with developing the Costa

Mesa-based Digital Brothers, a high-tech recording studio.

Shaw said performing with South Frisco gives him an opportunity to

play with another one of his heroes, cornetist Leon Oakley, who was with

Turk Murphy’s San Francisco Jazz Band for 11 years.

“Turk was another one of my idols while growing up,” Shaw said. “And

to be able to play alongside Leon is just fantastic.”

Shaw agrees with Saunders about the reunion. “Playing with all the

guys again on stage with our musical dialogue going on is like nothing

else,” he said.

And, according to Saunders, there may be one more South Frisco bash

down the road.

“We are shooting for a big blast in 2006 when we celebrate our 50th

anniversary. Of course, that is if the band is still kickin,” he said

laughing.

FYI

WHAT: The Costa Mesa Classic Jazz Festival

WHERE: Hilton Costa Mesa, 3050 S. Bristol St., Costa Mesa and Holiday

Inn, 3131 Bristol St. The hotels are located across the street from each

other.WHEN: Thursday through Aug. 5. Hours for the festival are 6:30 to

11:30 p.m. Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday, and

10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.

COST: $70 for three days plus the Thursday night pre-party. Or $35 for

Friday, $40 for Saturday and $30 for Sunday.CALL: (714) 438-4922.

WEB SITE: o7 https://www.oc-classicjazz.org

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