Jazz Trumpeter Roney Playing His Own Tune

Jazz Hall is a humble haunt of a club, on a side street in Santa Barbara, but its reputation far exceeds its square footage. Music is, without a doubt, the be-all and end-all here--walls are smothered in jazz lore and tables and sight lines are geared toward the all-important stage.

Founder Ridah Omri is devoted to making the intimate space resonate with great music. Over its year in existence, the club has seen such celebrities as Ernie Watts, Eddie Harris, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Mark Whitfield and many others who would otherwise play only in urban centers.

Tonight the club will present one of its most exciting acts to date, when the Wallace Roney Quintet arrives for two shows. Depending on whom you talk to, Roney may be the great hope of young trumpeters on the jazz circuit. He’s an impressive technician as well as a poetic voice in a scene rife with talented but not particularly visionary players.

The 36-year-old trumpeter hasn’t dodged controversy. Roney both acknowledges and defends having worked in the shadow of the late, great Miles Davis. In the summer of 1992, Davis called on Roney to play alongside him in a celebrated concert in Montreux, Switzerland, shortly before Davis’ death. Later, Roney went on to play his horn in the potent Tribute to Miles band, with Davis alumni Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter.

On the powerful new Warner Bros. album, “The Wallace Roney Quintet,” it’s hard to miss the stylistic debt to the classic mid-’60s Miles Davis Quintet. But this is a group that has gifts and ideas all its own. Although it is new to the record-buying public, the band, which features Roney’s brother Antoine on saxophone and inventive drummer Eric Allen, the band is among the finest and freshest in jazz.

Roney spoke on the phone last week from Los Angeles, where he played with his group at the Jazz Bakery.

Q: The new album is the first official recording with your quintet, playing original tunes, and you call the album simply “The Wallace Roney Quintet.” Do you feel that you’re entering a new chapter, making a new statement?

A: I look at it as the logical extension of what to do next and not going backward. I can’t go back to the things I used to do. This is it. In that sense, it’s a new chapter. The opportunity for me to really put together a band and make it work began in August of ’93. It had its genesis there.

This was the time when I decided that it was now or never. I’ve played with the greatest artists ever, and I can’t play with them again. Bless their souls, a lot of them have left us, and there was nowhere else for me to go. I didn’t want to be a sideman with people younger than me, because I had more to offer than they do.

So I got the best musicians of all the musicians out there. I had to explain to them what I meant when I wanted to play this against that, try to make a beat like this. I wanted to be as abstract as Cecil Taylor but swing like Basie.

Q: Eric Allen’s drum parts are pretty unique, taking liberties away from standard, expected playing. Is that something that grows out of the tunes as they evolve?

A: That’s just Eric. He’s an advanced player. All of them are, but Eric interprets things in a very advanced way. He’s an abstract romantic.

Q: That could describe you, as well.

A: That’s why we’re all sympathetic with each other.

Q: Was the mid-’60s Miles Davis Quintet a paradigm for you, a springboard for creating your own quintet?

A: Of course, because they are who they are, but also John Coltrane and Elvin [Jones] and some of the bands that [Charles] Mingus had were important to me. Another band that was amazing to me was the one that [Thelonious] Monk had with Art Blakey. That was something else. I liked Horace Silver’s group--the tightness and their ability to groove. All those things were important to me.

Q: Was it a bit disorienting for you to play in the Tribute to Miles band, in that you were playing the role of Miles, obviously one of your biggest heroes?

A: Not really. I was there because he had chosen me to play with him in Montreux. The qualification of that band was that everybody had to have played with Miles. . . . The critics were a problem to me, but that playing situation was not a problem at all. Man, we had fun. That was a great band.

Q: Could it happen again?

A: I don’t know. We’re good friends. I just spoke to Tony last week and I called Wayne before I came out here. It would happen because we’re friends. I don’t have to play music with them to enjoy who they are. But playing with them is always a blessing for me.

Q: It sounds like you’ve plunged into this quintet to the point where it has become your life. Is that true?

A: Yeah, it’s my life. What else am I going to do? I do other things, but music is my contribution, that makes me feel like I’m worth something to society, rather than just freeloading off the fat of the earth. I’m trying to give something back that way.

Q: Do you feel like everything has fallen into place, now that you’re signed with Warner Bros. and are leading a working group?

A: It has fallen into place musically, but it’s still a fight on other fronts. It’s still a fight to convince people that I have a band worth taking seriously. Once I play at places, they say, ‘Wow.’ They haven’t considered the fact that I have a band, and probably the best band out here. These guys deserve to be playing and to be heard. They have something to offer people who listen. That’s been the biggest fight, and I’m going to fight hard for it.

DETAILS

* WHAT: The Wallace Roney Quintet.

* WHERE: Jazz Hall, 29 E. Victoria St. in Santa Barbara

* WHEN: 8 and 10:30 p.m. tonight.

* HOW MUCH: $20.

* CALL: 963-0404.