Adding to the Mix

These days, not too many steady jobs exist in live music, but Chuck Camper’s got one of them. For the past 21 years, Camper has been the featured reed artist at the Baked Potato. He plays tenor and alto saxes as well as flute and alto flute with Don Randi, keyboardist and owner of the club. Camper will perform with Randi and his band, Quest, Friday through Sunday.

“It just hit me how long it’s been,” said Camper, a soft-spoken fellow who can play with plenty of grit and persuasion. “Those years have gone by quickly.”

And with a great deal of pleasure. Though Camper calls himself a bit of a purist who names jazz giants John Coltrane, Joe Henderson and Yusef Lateef as major influences, he has had no problem digging into Randi’s eclectic program of jazz, pop, Latin and even rock tunes.

“That’s one of the things I like, that we play a mixture of styles,” said Camper, 50, who lives in Studio City.

A look at Camper’s background quickly establishes his versatility. A native of Peoria, Ill., he played in rock bands in high school, soul/jazz groups in his hometown after graduation, then Blood, Sweat and Tears-type jazz/rock outfits when he moved to Los Angeles in the late ‘60s. The soul/jazz experience, where he delivered both straight-ahead tunes and funk numbers, was particularly meaningful.

“I learned things about music that you can’t learn in the classroom,” said Camper. “I got a feel for the music, for the beat, a sense of the language. These were essentially black bands based in the blues, which I think is the basis of all real jazz. And that language is the same to me whether it’s a New Orleans funeral or Sonny Rollins or Duke Ellington. The style changes, the language stays the same.”

Along the way, Camper developed a passion for Coltrane. “He’s my over-arching influence,” he said. “There was this inward, churning quality, a spiritual restlessness that I responded to.”

Camper brings all these influences to the bandstand at the Baked Potato. “My energy, my feeling, those are my strongest aspects,” he said.

The reed man pointed out that while Randi is probably playing more straight-ahead stuff than he ever did, the band’s show is based on honest expression that’s geared to everyone, even the non-jazz listener.

“The music is pretty straightforward. We play what we feel,” Camper said. “If we do a jazz number, we’re not going to soften it up and make it like hip elevator music. We’re going to go for it. And if we do a pop tune, we’re not going to try and turn that into jazz history.”

* Chuck Camper plays with Don Randi and Quest from Friday-Sunday, 9 p.m.-1 a.m., at the Baked Potato, 3787 Cahuenga Blvd., North Hollywood. $10 cover, two-drink minimum. Information: (818) 980-1615.

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Worth Catching: Julie Kelly, a jazz singer whose capacity for deep feeling is never in question, delivers the goods when she sings standards Friday, from 8 p.m. to midnight, in the lounge of Ca’ del Sole, 4100 N. Cahuenga Blvd., North Hollywood; no cover, no minimum; (818) 985-4669.

Two more artists who specialize in emotion are John and Jeanne Pisano--he plays the guitar, she sings exquisitely. Their luscious versions of standards, Brazilian numbers and originals are on tap Saturday, 7:30 to 11 p.m., at Papashon, 15910 Ventura Blvd., Encino; no cover, no minimum; (818) 783-6664.

Patrick Boone, the eclectic saxophonist-composer and CSUN grad, performs at Common Grounds (9250 Reseda Blvd., Northridge; no cover, $2.50 minimum purchase; (818) 882-3666. Boone appears Monday at 8:30 p.m.

Saxophonist-composer-arranger-educator Buddy Collette leads his deftly swinging big band Tuesday, 8 and 10 p.m., at the Moonlight, 13730 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks; $13 cover for 8 p.m. show, $9 cover for 10 p.m., $9.95 food or drink minimum; (818) 788-2000.