Premium Double Bill Comes to Bakery Via ‘Kansas City’

Double features are no more common at jazz clubs these days than they are in movie theaters. Which makes next week’s lineup at the Jazz Bakery seem, at first glance, to be a possible typographical error: the Cyrus Chestnut Trio and the Nicholas Payton Quintet on the same bill. Can that be right? It’s hard to remember the last time two such significant jazz acts turned up in the same club on the same program.

But the listing is correct. It really is a double feature and, appropriately, it’s come about because of an unusual confluence of events--some of them associated with the new Robert Altman jazz-scored film, “Kansas City” (scheduled for release in August). And, as a kind of added attraction, the Bakery will screen a 50-minute extract of musical performances from the picture prepared by Altman) “Bob’s an old friend,” explains Ruth Price, the Bakery’s musical director. “He offered to make it available and I jumped at the chance. And Cyrus and Nicholas both have new albums out, as well as their performance on the ‘Kansas City’ soundtrack album, which has also just been released. So there was a lot of support available from Bob, as well as the record companies, Atlantic and Verve.”

Record company “support” at a venue like the Bakery can range from the purchase of 30 or 40 seats for a performer’s run to a guarantee of as much as $3,000 in ticket purchases. In the case of this booking, Price will only say that the support is “substantial.”

The Chestnut/Payton booking, which runs from Tuesday through May 19 (with two shows on Friday, Saturday and Sunday), is the centerpiece in a month that typifies Price’s “all-over-the-place” programming. Some--the Chestnut/Payton bill and last week’s Wallace Roney appearance--receive substantial record company support. Others, such as singer Blossom Dearie’s weeklong run beginning May 21 and performances by trombonist Bob Brookmeyer and saxophonist Lew Tabackin the week of May 27, are on their own.

But even substantial record company ticket purchases don’t always result in supportive audiences, especially on the early days of the week. What has occasionally appeared to be a sparse house at the Bakery actually resulted when a record company picked up a block of tickets without providing warm bodies to fill the seats.

“And I hate to see that,” Price says. “It’s really hard on the players.”

But Price, who has known the ups and downs of performance during her own career as a singer, is pleased that the club, without benefit of the income from a bar or a kitchen (the Bakery’s small food service counter is a concession), is at least breaking even while bringing major jazz acts to the Southland.

“The only time I really lose money,” she says, “is when my musical judgment tells me someone’s a very good player and I pay them more than I should and ignore the good sense that tells me the public doesn’t know about them yet. But that’s balanced with the times when we’ll have someone like an Elvin Jones come in, without any kind of promotional support, and he’ll sell the place out.”

* The Cyrus Chestnut Trio and the Nicholas Payton Quintet at the Jazz Bakery through May 19. 3233 Helms Avenue. (310) 271- 9039.$18 admission Wed. and Thurs. at 8:30 pm and Sunday, May 19 at 3 pm. $20 admission Friday and Saturday, May 18 at 8:30 and 10:30 pm and Sunday, May 19 at 8 pm. Ticket price also includes admission to Robert Altman’s “Jazz ‘34: Remembrances of Kansas City Swing,” a 55 minute musical film promotion for the Verve album, “Kansas City, Original Soundtrack.” Saturday, May 18 at 7 pm and 12 midnight, and Sunday, May 19 at 2:30 pm and 6:30 pm.

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Album Tracks: Bassist-composer Charles Mingus’ widow, Sue, doesn’t mess around when it comes to protecting her husband’s musical heritage. After years of fighting with bootleggers and physically removing tapes and CDs of pirated Mingus performances from record store shelves, she has established a new record company specifically devoted to the issuance of Mingus concert performances. Appropriately, it will be called Revenge Records.

“We will press the very material released illegally by others,” Mingus says, “do it better and sell it back again--with comprehensive notes, authentic photographs, historical data and cheaper rates. We will undersell the pirates and put them out of business.”

The first Revenge collection of Mingus material--a concert featuring Eric Dolphy, recorded for French radio in 1964--will be released next week.

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On the Airwaves: On cable TV, Bravo’s eight-part series “Masters of American Music” premieres tonight with “The Story of Jazz” at 6:35. Rare film clips of Coleman Hawkins, Bessie Smith, Charles Mingus and others are promised. The program repeats Saturday at 12:40 a.m.

Blue Note record producer Michael Cuscuna is the guest disc jockey on “Cafe L.A.,” hosted by Tom Schnabel Saturday, 1-2 p.m. on KCRW-FM (88.9).

Free music: The American Jazz Philharmonic--directed by Jack Elliott and including saxophonists Ernie Watts, Pete Christlieb and Ray Pizzi--presents works from Ray Brown, Henry Mancini and others when it plays the Carpenter Performing Arts Center at Cal State Long Beach, Thursday, 8 p.m. The performance is sold out.

The Playboy Jazz Festival’s series of community concerts leading up to the big weekend June 15-16 at the Hollywood Bowl continues today with a free seniors concert by the 18-piece Los Angeles Multi-School Jazz Band, directed by Reggie Andrews at the Watts Senior Citizens Center, 10937 S. Central Ave., 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Information: (310) 449-4070.