His Music Was Written Before He Was Born

SAN DIEGO — Guitarist Howard Alden favors music written before he was born in 1958. Alden gravitated toward 1940s and 1950s jazz when he first picked up a guitar as a teen-ager growing up in Huntington Beach. He believes they just don’t make ‘em the way they used to.

“You spend so much time playing the great material that, for whatever accident of history, came together during that period, that it gets inhibiting when you try to write something yourself, and it just doesn’t compare,” said Alden, explaining why he has written few songs of his own.

Alden, who plays the Horton Grand Hotel in downtown San Diego on Friday and Saturday--his first dates at a local club--has altered his approach to guitar in recent months because of an association with fellow jazz guitarist George Van Eps that began in 1990.

Van Eps plays a seven-string guitar, and Alden switched from six to seven strings earlier this year, purchasing a guitar handmade by Pennsylvania craftsman Bob Benedetto.

Alden and Van Eps have made two recordings together for the Concord Jazz label and are in a studio working on a third this week. The seven-string guitar, with its expanded range, is especially suited to the duos favored by Alden and Van Eps, or Alden and clarinetist Ken Peplowski, who joins him at the Horton this weekend. With the added string, tuned to an “A” below a conventional guitar’s low “E” string, Alden’s guitar can handle expanded duties, from bass lines to wide-ranging improvisation.

Alden, who has lived in New York for 10 years, was born in Newport Beach and says his first guitar hero was Barney Kessel, who now lives in San Diego. Alden also credits a year he spent studying guitar with Howard Roberts at the Guitar Institute of Technology in Los Angeles as essential to his development.

Alden prefers a pure, clean acoustic sound along the lines of Kessel, Joe Pass and a handful of others.

On “Misterioso,” his 1991 release on Concord, Alden lends his spare, lean approach to tunes ranging from moody (“Ghost of Yesterday,” “Song of the Dove”) to light, medium tempo (“Flying Down to Rio”) and gently swinging (Ellington’s “Black Beauty”).

He combines several essential qualities of the solid jazz guitarist, including speedy melodic lines that ring clear and smooth, and sliding series of chords that provide transitions between sections and moods.

Alden is still young, but his playing exhibits two mature traits: restraint and a high degree of technical precision. He’s a virtuoso who can easily carry a set without accompaniment, but he’ll be joined in San Diego this weekend by Peplowski, plus drummer Jake Hanna and bassist Dave Stone.

Music this Friday and Saturday nights begins at 8:30. There’s a $5 cover charge.

Under new owners Anthony Burich and San Diego Charger Broderick Thompson, who took over Nov. 17, the B St. Cafe in downtown San Diego will use video to add traditional jazz to its pop jazz menu.

Burich, former manager of Paparazzi in La Jolla, says the name of the place has been changed to B St. Restaurant, Jazz and Sports Bar, and that live light jazz will continue to be featured several nights a week. Also, Dixieland jazz will be added for Sunday brunches beginning the first week in January.

The club will soon be equipped with several new video monitors and a new sound system, and Burich plans to feature videos of top jazz performers, including some late, great legends such as Louis Armstrong.

“There’s a lot of people out there who shy away from progressive jazz and are more interested in traditional jazz,” he said. With the variety of jazz available on videos and Laserdiscs, Burich figures he can add a new dimension to the meaning of “jazz club.”

He says the club will offer lower meal prices, no cover charge and no drink minimum.

RIFFS: In other good news for jazz fans, Ole Madrid night club in the Gaslamp Quarter downtown (755 5th Ave.) has designated Sunday nights for salsa with the all-star local band Salsa Para Ti, fronted by percussionist Tommy Rosas. . . .

Saxman Joe Lovano will be interviewed on KSDS-FM (88.3) at 2 p.m. Friday. Lovano’s newest recording is “From the Soul,” which came out in July. . . .

Espresso Literati in La Jolla (7660 Fay Ave.) celebrates its first anniversary with an open house and jazz jam from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, led by guitarist Art Johnson.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

STICKING CLOSE TO HOME

There’s no particularly mysterious reason why San Diego saxman Charles McPherson is appearing every Saturday night this month at Croce’s in the Gaslamp Quarter downtown, even though he rarely plays local clubs.

“It’s a simple matter of money,” McPherson said. “I don’t choose not to play in San Diego than for any other reason than I’d like to get the price I want to get, and the fact that there’s not a whole lot of places to play.”

Actually, there is another equally important reason why McPherson is available Saturdays this month. After the birth of his new daughter, Camille, seven months ago, he has not wanted to stray far from home to play.

McPherson notes that the environment at Croce’s is not the same as at jazz clubs where there is quiet reverence for the music. Croce’s is a social hub and restaurant as much as a jazz venue, and musicians don’t always get the audience’s undivided attention, but this is not necessarily bad for a musician.

“The atmosphere is such that you just kind of play,” McPherson said. “It’s kind of nice to get into your own thing, and if people want to get into you that’s beautiful, but quite often they’re not.”

McPherson’s first set starts at 8:30 p.m. He’ll be joined by son Chuck on drums, Jeff Littleton on bass, and Greg Kurstin on piano. Music includes songs from his last release, “Illusions in Blue,” plus several new, as-yet-unrecorded tunes. There’s a $5 cover charge.