Russo Alberts Trio serves up
inventive jazz at Hotel De Anza
By Andrew Gilbert for the Mercury News
May 1, 2009
The three veteran musicians who make up the Russo Alberts Trio like to call themselves
the Bad Boys.
It's not because they're lacking in gravitas or maturity. Rather, bassist Don Russo, pianist
Don Alberts and drummer Art Lewis bring a decidedly youthful sensibility to the
bandstand, a mischievous virtuosity born of deep affection and decades of shared history.
The trio's long-running Thursday-night gig at
Hotel De Anza's Hedley Club has turned into
a personal playground for these musicians, an
all-too-rare forum for developing new
material while cultivating a discerning
audience. Since opening there on Valentine's
Day 2008, the ensemble has turned the
intimate lounge into one of the Bay Area's
most consistently rewarding rooms for jazz
listening.
"It's hard to find steady gigs to play your music," says Russo, 66, by phone from his
home in Santa Cruz. "When the Hedley gig came up, I told (booker) Lonny Abugow that
we need to play our own music, and he gave us an unlimited engagement.
"Now we get an international crowd. When the Sharks come in after games, they're
quieting down to check out the trio."
Russo, Alberts and Lewis started working together nearly 50 years ago, and each has
since traveled a long and winding road to get to the Hedley Club. They met as young men
on the Bay Area scene and paid dues at venues like Jesters, a club once opposite the San
Jose Civic Auditorium.
Impressed by the combo, popular West Coast baritone saxophonist Virgil Gonsalves
recruited the trio as his band.
In the mid-'60s however, the burgeoning San Francisco rock movement rapidly eclipsed
the jazz scene, and by the end of the decade all three players had left the area to look for
greener pastures.
The East Bay-raised Alberts, 69, who supplies the trio with a steady flow of original
material, ended up settling in Portland, Ore., for two decades, where he played regularly
with the great singer Nancy King and bass masters David Friesen, Leroy Vinegar and
Glen Moore.
He later moved to Southern California and returned to the Bay Area at Russo's behest and
delved back into the scene as an elder statesman.
Now based in San Bruno, the one-time house pianist at San Francisco's storied Jimbo's
Bop City still enjoys informal gigs every Sunday in San Francisco's Mission district at
the Savanna Jazz Club's jam session with percussion great Donald Bailey, offering
guidance to young musicians.
But it's the trio that provides his primary inspiration, and the 2007 CD "Bad Boys" (Sims
Road Music) focuses exclusively on his tunes, except for one piece by Charles Mingus.
"We don't like to admit we've known each other so long, but we do go way back," says
Alberts, who has won a series of ASCAP Jazz Composers Awards. "I hear the sound of
the trio as I write. I know Don's going to play this, and Art's going to go here."
Lewis, 68, who was born in New Orleans and grew up in Alameda, has taken the most
circuitous journey. A protégé of Philly Joe Jones, he spent several years on the road with
vocalese pioneer Jon Hendricks before moving to New York City in the late 1960s.
A busy freelancer, he played with many of the music's most adventurous improvisers,
such as Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Lee Konitz, Sam Rivers and Andrew Hill, with whom he
recorded several albums.
Following new opportunities, Lewis became a sought-after accompanist in Munich and
Paris, working with American musicians who needed to pick up a rhythm section for
European gigs. He settled back in the Bay Area in 1992, but it wasn't until 2005 that his
path crossed with Alberts — at the Dogpatch Saloon's Sunday afternoon jam session in
San Francisco.
The trio soon reunited, and Lewis found an ideal outlet for his relentlessly creative drum
work.
"Some of Don's arrangements are a little different, and he gives me freedom to improvise,
to play different time signatures, tempos and beats," says Lewis, who lives in Marin's San
Geronimo Valley. "It gives me a chance to compose a rhythm structure around the form
of the tune. It keeps you thinking."
Of the three musicians, Russo has traveled the farthest to get back to the trio. After work
evaporated in the Bay Area, he ended up in Detroit in 1969, playing jazz and studying
classical music at the Detroit Institute of Musical Arts. But when a mugger severely
injured his hand in the mid-70s, Russo thought his bass-playing days were over.
A successful businessman, he didn't pick up an instrument again for nearly 20 years.
When he returned to music, he initially concentrated on electric bass, playing around
Santa Cruz.
Eventually he decided to tackle the upright, and through rigorous practice he gradually
rebuilt his technique. After Russo coaxed Alberts back to the Bay Area, they employed
several drummers before alighting on Lewis.
"Don has written a lot of new music, and the melodies are stronger than ever," Russo
says. "We have a lot of softer tunes, bossa novas, and with Art we can just blaze. I don't
do many other gigs, because this music takes a lot of focus. It's a journey. I'm just curious
to see where it ends up."
The Russo Alberts Trio
When: 8 p.m. Thursdays
Where: Hedley Club, Hotel De Anza, 233 Santa Clara St., San Jose
Admission: No cover; 408-286-1000, www.hoteldeanza.com/hedleyclub.asp
Andrew Gilbert - San Jose Mercury (May 5, 2009)