A NOTEWORTHY EFFORT; AGING JAZZ MUSICIANS TRY TO SAVE AGELESS MUSIC.

Byline: Michael Coit Daily News Staff Writer

Some of the bounce remains in Danny Davis, retired stuntman turned band leader, as his Dixieland jazz band plays its annual gig at the Simi Valley Jazz Club.

Fronting seven bandmates, Davis taps his vibraphone and croons the tuneful lyrics to such upbeat classics as ``Red Hot Mama'' and a sprinkling of duets with his wife, Frances, including the always popular ``You Say the Sweetest Things, Baby.''

The Simi Valley Elks Lodge is packed with couples and families celebrating the club's fifth ``official'' birthday - although musicians and their fans first gathered at the Moose Lodge nine years ago. Several now step and slide across the parquet dance floor at the front of the dark, wood-paneled hall, giving the few wallflowers something to think about before the afternoon is done.

``We're retired. We do this for fun,'' said the 83-year-old Davis. ``But you can always use a little extra money.

``The main thing of this is the camaraderie, the musicians playing together, and it's gratifying to us to see the people out there dancing.''

Davis retired from movie and television stunt work after a surfing accident 40 years ago, forming his first band after recovering from those injuries. Hollywood still is home, and Davis and his Dixieland and swing bands have been a fixture on a Sunday jazz club circuit born some two decades ago when big-band and movie studio veterans moved out of living rooms and into fraternal lodges, club halls and other informal venues.

From Simi Valley to Reseda, Manhattan Beach to Canoga Park, these jazz clubs have sustained some of the greatest American music spawned during the first half of this century.

``It spread all over because we all liked jazz. I still follow the whole circuit,'' said Tommy Pinto, a 73-year-old saxophone player, band leader and Simi Valley Jazz Club president.

Neither the musicians nor their fans, though, are getting any younger. You know it's an older crowd when those 50-something musicians are labeled ``kids.''

Leaders among the aging jazz set are beginning to confront a fear that the music they love and cherish could fade and become as rare as the vinyl records containing recordings of that same music.

``A lot of the members are getting older. Some are dying off, and many can't drive anymore,'' said Terry Iozzia, a sprightly hostess and the Simi club's treasurer.

``We're going strong,'' she said, looking over the packed hall decorated with balloons and cloth-covered dining tables. ``It's just that we'd like to keep it going with younger folks. We want high school and college musicians.''

The rumblings have been even louder since Joe Boyle, the club's vice president, wrote a letter accompanying the November bulletin. Stating, ``It's time to re-examine the jazz clubs,'' Boyle said that aging audiences have resulted in sometimes spotty crowds and increasing financial problems.

``We don't make money every month of the year. Our head's above water, but not all the clubs are above water,'' Boyle said as the Danny Davis band played.

As an example, Boyle said, the club might pay $200 or so for a band to perform at the monthly Sunday session, which also features sit-ins for musicians in the crowd. Tickets sales on a good day might yield $350, yet the $150 profit can evaporate if turnout is slow the following month.

``One of the clubs is very close to throwing in the towel,'' Boyle said, declining to name the club. ``Many of these people will join three or four, and if one club falls off, then they might start to lose interest.''

Counting on at least lukewarm interest in America's one true musical art form among young musicians, club leaders are opening their doors wide to attract new blood.

Earlier this fall, 12-year-old Chase Conove sat in with a big band at the Simi Valley club for three selections. The bold middle school musician told his venerable sidemen what he could handle and blew his saxophone, impressing Pinto, the club president.

``I liked it,'' Pinto recalled. ``We've got to pass the tradition along to the younger ages, because they're young and play stronger than us.''

Chase, who lives with his family in Oak Park, played confidently despite less than two years' experience on the tenor sax.

``It was fun playing with all those people who have been around for so long,'' Chase said. ``And of course it was a big band, and they had all those instruments you don't see all the time.

``It was real music. It was pure and good.''

Such outreach efforts have been spotty, and it's often not a fault of the clubs.

The Simi Valley High School Jazz Band, for instance, played annually each spring for several years. But the students' schedules are so packed with school concerts and weekend competitions, as well as private lessons, that they haven't been back since 1994.

``It just was difficult getting a whole 16- or 18-piece band there,'' said Larry Elginer, the school's instrumental director the past 14 years.

In the fall, there is the marching band. The top musicians come together in spring to play a range of jazz, from swing and Latin to funk.

``It's very popular,'' Elginer said. ``Jazz is just exciting. Kids love listening to jazz and playing it. They like it from the '30s and '40s swing, up to the contemporary jazz.''

And when they played the Simi Valley Jazz Club, they gave the crowd a glimpse of a bright future for jazz.

``It's very intimate,'' Elginer recalled. ``They really were a very responsive group and enjoyed them.''

So there is a budding interest in jazz, even the fast, ragtime tempo that is the Dixieland sound.

Boyle intended his letter as a wake-up call to musicians and fans to do more to tap that interest.

``What we're here for is to keep this music alive. It's truly an American art form,'' he explained. ``We have failed to get the young people interested in our music. But then again, we were never into our parents' music.''

Many club members said they welcomed the frankly stated letter and will work harder to get younger members.

And Iozzia said some younger fans do come back after their first sample of a Sunday session. ``I think we are the friendliest club of all. We have a big dance floor, and the Elks Lodge are great hosts.''

One of those who plans on returning is Chase Conove. His father, Robert Conove, who leads a small band that performs at weddings and parties, has helped develop an appreciation for jazz in the young sax player.

``A lot of young people are coming out with modern jazz,'' Chase said. ``The classic jazz, it will always have a spot.

``Sometimes it won't always be popular, but it will always come back. If it wasn't for that, we wouldn't have the music that we have today.''

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Photo

PHOTO (color) Bill Dingsdale, left, and Bob Danis play at the Simi Valley Jazz Club.

Gus Ruelas/Daily News