From the Office to the Recording Studio

What do you get when you put together a world-class jazz pianist-composer, a former jazz-rock drummer-producer and the president of a major entertainment entity? Not what you might expect. The partnership of Roger Kellaway, Bobby Colomby and Gary Lemel may seem to be an unlikely combination, but the results are intriguing.

Lemel, who is president of music for Warner Bros. Pictures and CEO of Warner-Sunset, the company’s soundtrack label, has had a parallel career as a singer for decades. His first album was released in 1964 on Vee-Jay, the same year that the company issued “Introducing the Beatles.”

“You can pretty much guess what that did to my album,” Lemel recalls with a laugh. “There were actually people around at the time who said, ‘Don’t worry, man, the Beatles will fade away.’ Little did they know.”

Lemel made three other albums in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s without generating much reaction. Last year, when he began to plan a new release on Atlantic--appropriately titled, given his dual careers, “Moonlighting”--he decided to take a different route. Bringing in Colomby (former drummer with Blood, Sweat & Tears and a highly regarded producer with strong jazz credentials), he introduced him to Kellaway (whose resume includes everything from gigging with Sonny Rollins, Zoot Sims, Ben Webster and others to extensive film scoring).

“They hit it off right away,” says Lemel. “And Bobby made it clear from the start that he didn’t want to make another big-band-and-singer album. I told him, ‘No way. I want Roger to write with no restrictions, and I want my vocals to be part of the ensemble. When the band plays, I want it to play real jazz. I don’t want it to play eight bars or go into a turnaround and I’m back.’ ”

The result is an unusual vocal album. Colomby provided such first-rate jazz soloists as Randy and Michael Brecker, Steve Khan and Elvin Jones, adding singer Paula Cole’s unexpectedly effective scat-singing on “Call Me Irresponsible.” And Kellaway came up with scores that are rich with subtle harmonic textures and moving rhythms.

“I mentioned Gil Evans’ name to Roger the first time we discussed the album,” says Colomby, “and he immediately knew where I was going.”

Colomby made the further, somewhat surprising decision to keep Lemel’s voice well within the ensemble textures, refusing to make the more predictable choice of placing it in front of the accompaniment.

“Gary’s one of the instruments,” he says. “And that’s the way to hear the album--as a jazz date with a singer as part of the instruments, basically laying down the melody lines.”

It’s not the sort of integrated role that most singers would tolerate. But then, most singers don’t have parallel careers as entertainment executives. And, for Lemel, working in this kind of solid jazz setting is a dream come true.

“It’s the best work I’ve ever done,” he says. “Hopefully, that’s because I’ve reached the point in my life where I can bring something to the readings, but it’s hard to go wrong when you’re surrounded by these incredible sounds and these great players.”

Jazz Seen: Journalist Ralph J. Gleason’s “Jazz Casual” series on public television in the ‘60s offered rare opportunities to see and hear jazz during a decade when rock music was beginning to dominate the media. Copies of the half-hour programs have circulated in bootleg form for years, but Rhino Home Video has now begun a campaign to make all 29 surviving episodes available.

The first three, featuring John Coltrane, Count Basie and Carmen McRae in intimate, informal settings, will be available in stores on Tuesday. The next group, scheduled for July 20, includes Mel Torme, Julian “Cannonball” Adderley and Dizzy Gillespie, and the final group for 1999, scheduled for Oct. 19, features the Modern Jazz Quartet, Jimmy Rushing and Sonny Rollins.

The videos will be sold individually at $15, or in three-packs (including the three programs from each grouping) at $40, and can also be purchased at the Rhino Web site at https://www.rhino.com.

Jazz Grant: The Los Angeles Jazz Society’s ambitious and continuing program to bring music to Southland young people has received a $25,000 grant from Edison International. The funding will support the “Jazz in Schools” educational series and the Bill Green Mentoring Program--the former to sponsor live performances at 30 Los Angeles Unified School District elementary and secondary campuses, the latter to provide supplemental instruction for young students enrolled in existing jazz programs.

Riffs: Three West Coast high school jazz ensembles are among the 20 finalists in the Jazz at Lincoln Center “Essentially Ellington” High School Band Competition. The groups, from Kentridge High in Kent, Wash., and Garfield High and Roosevelt High, both in Seattle, will compete for $50,000 in prizes at the competition finals, which will take place at Manhattan’s Avery Fisher Hall on April 29 (the Ellington centennial birthday), April 30 and May 1. . . . Smooth jazz will be doing its own version of retro over the next month or so with new releases scheduled from such veteran crossover artists as Chuck Mangione, Joe Sample, Tom Scott, Gato Barbieri and David Sanborn.