HIS MISSION: BRING JAZZ SOUND TO L.A.'S MASSES.

Byline: Reed Johnson Daily News Staff Writer

Bobbing and swaying like small craft at sea, the audience at Plaza de la Raza is surely wondering: Who are these guys, anyway? And why aren't they charging for this stuff?

For the past 40 minutes, the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra has been dishing up hot, swinging jazz, the kind that makes parents bounce toddlers on their knees, and cool, introspective jazz, the kind that makes young couples huddle closer together and old men wish for long bygone nights.

Who are these guys?

The 18-member band - a polyrhythmic sampling of ages, races and personal fashion statements - mirrors the diversity of the multiethnic crowd that has packed this East L.A. cultural center, five minutes north of downtown.

In an hourlong jam session, the band rips through a variety of jazz genres, seguing seamlessly from Billy Strayhorn's melancholy ``Star-Crossed Lovers'' to ``Sashay,'' a bright piece of whimsy penned by CHJO band member Oscar Brashear.

As Brashear launches into a silky trumpet solo, 21-year-old Isaac Smith, a young, dreadlocked trombonist, can't help grinning with unabashed pleasure at his bandmate's dexterity. At the far end of the stage, band leader John Clayton, a quietly handsome man in a mustard-colored sportcoat, also grins.

They're getting us, he thinks. And they are.

``That was a special concert - a special crowd, I should say,'' says Clayton, a three-time Grammy nominee, a few days later.

Indeed, a decade or two hence, local jazz aficionados may look back on that free May 26 concert at Plaza de la Raza the way classical music lovers recall hearing Stravinsky's ``Firebird Suite'' at the Hollywood Bowl in the 1940s, with the venerable Russian emigre composer in attendance.

Just as Stravinsky's arrival in Hollywood marked an upswing in L.A.'s musical maturation, the recent appointment of Clayton as artistic director of jazz at the Bowl, with CHJO as its ensemble-in-residence, could augur an important new phase in L.A. jazz history.

That, at any rate, was the significance attributed by Willem Wijnbergen, executive vice president and managing director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, when he announced the new initiative last November.

In recruiting Clayton and his highly regarded L.A.-based band, and by expanding Lexus Jazz at the Bowl (now in its 20th season) to an eight-concert Wednesday night series, the Dutch-born Wijnbergen hopes to raise the profile of jazz locally and make it a permanent part of the L.A. Phil's creative mission.

Making more room for jazz fits Wijnbergen's long-term strategy of mixing new elements such as world beat into the Bowl's traditional lineup of classical, pops, film screenings with accompaniment, Broadway show tunes and so on.

``Jazz is a wonderful natural binding element for different audiences - black American, white, Asian,'' Wijnbergen observes. ``There are many audiences who can really gather around jazz. So you get this integration around that music more than anything else, I think.''

The very first time he heard CHJO, Wijnbergen says, the group's quality, professionalism and sense of fun ``just blew me away.''

``They're local heroes - or we'll turn them into local heroes.''

If not yet a local hero, Clayton is certainly a familiar face around town, as are several members of the band he co-founded 14 years ago with his alto saxophonist brother Jeff and his best friend, drummer Jeff Hamilton.

A composer and arranger, as well as an accomplished classical and jazz bass player, John Clayton studied under Ray Brown and began his career touring and recording with jazz pianist Monty Alexander. He then spent two years with Count Basie and his Orchestra and later held the position of principal bass with the Amsterdam Philharmonic.

Clayton also teaches at both USC and UCLA, a vital qualification given the extensive outreach work that CHJO will be doing with local schools and community groups.

Not surprisingly, given his own eclectic background, Clayton is reluctant to pigeonhole his orchestra by laying out too many programming specifics in advance. Rather, he wants the series to define itself by its visiting artists, and by the new arrangements and compositions that he'll be preparing specifically for each performer.

``I think that the main statement I'm trying to make is one of quality, so everybody we have just represents the highest quality of jazz that's out there,'' Clayton says.

``Also, I've been thinking about bringing the names that everyone recognizes in jazz to L.A., but I'm trying to sprinkle some less familiar names or unknown names in this area, for instance Regina Carter, Dee Daniels, Byron Stripling, Andy Vargas. All of these people are known in the (jazz) community or, say, on the East Coast or wherever they're from, but not so well in Los Angeles. And I know that they're going to knock the locals' socks off, so I'm really excited about that.''

David L. Abell, chairman of the L.A. Jazz Society, says CHJO's appointment will give Angelenos a chance to experience more of the world-class talent available in their own back yard.

``As we get older, those of us who are really interested in jazz, the number of people shrinks,'' Abell says. ``The Bowl adds another dimension, where a lot of people are going to be exposed to a lot of wonderful music by a lot of great artists.''

In addition to its eight Bowl appearances, Clayton-Hamilton will perform on March 29 and May 10 next year at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The May 10 concert will focus on ``The Sounds of Central Avenue,'' the historic L.A. corridor where African-American immigrants from the South and Midwest brought an infusion of blues and jazz in the 1930s and '40s.

Though Clayton and Wijnbergen both say they haven't modeled the new initiative on any existing program, the obvious reference point is Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. Formed a decade ago, Jazz at Lincoln Center has become the largest producer of jazz in the United States, presenting some 400 concerts a year around the globe, along with workshops, lectures and classes.

Its artistic director, Wynton Marsalis, has made one of the institution's top priorities to define a jazz ``canon,'' a body of classic repertory for audiences to use as a foundation for appreciating jazz.

Clayton says he intends to program plenty of music by Basie, Duke Ellington, Woody Herman and other great orchestrators of the past. But he stresses that Jazz at the Bowl must be fundamentally about entertainment, with education emerging as a secondary ``byproduct.''

``We don't get into jazz as young kids because of some heritage commitment, you know?'' he says. ``We get into it because, hey, this is cool, this is nice. And I think that's why people go through all of the headache of getting in their car, driving to the Bowl, dealing with Bowl traffic, parking, etc.''

While jazz today is scattered throughout the L.A. region at clubs, festivals, concert halls, performing arts centers and hotel lobbies, it probably hit its highwater mark here in the 1950s. That's when artists like Stan Kenton, Dave Brubeck, Chet Baker, Billy Higgins, Buddy Collette and others began charting a breezy ``West Coast'' cool jazz alternative to frenzied, New York-centered be-bop.

Wijnbergen believes CHJO and its charismatic front man could help revive a measure of that once-thriving scene.

``John is a unique individual, just because of his personal traits,'' Wijnbergen says. ``He is somebody that everybody would like to work with. It's impossible not to enjoy working with this man. He has all the natural qualities of a real leader, I would say.''

So what does CHJO's leader imagine it'll be like chatting with 15,000 people on a warm summer's night?

``I'm honest enough to admit my discomfort or mistakes, but I'm also silly enough to just shrug it off,'' he says, laughing. ``And I also know that it's really ultimately not about me. It's about the music. And I'm just a conduit for getting the music to the people.''

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: John Clayton, leader of the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, is pointman for the Bowl's strategy to spread jazz appreciation.

Tina Gerson/Daily News