Kansas City-Bound, Audience Along for the Ride

There are two pictures on “From Buckaroo to Silver-Tongued Devil,” David Basse’s latest album. One was taken when he was 3; the other was taken a year ago, when he was 39. “In both of them,” he said this week with a laugh, “I have a hat on, and I have big bags under my eyes. I look the same!”

Nor have his musical tastes changed much over the years. He fell for Kansas City-style jazz when he was 17, and it’s like he’s still on his honeymoon. “The kind of music that Count Basie played,” said drummer/singer Basse, who will lead his seven-piece City Light Orchestra tonight at the Renaissance Cafe in Dana Point, “that’s what I love.”

The succulent sounds played by Basse and his band recall a bygone era, when life was simpler and jazz was music people could dance to. “I love to listen to people like Max Roach,” Basse said, “but I don’t really like to play music that’s so wild people can’t dance to it.

“I have trouble sitting down when I hear music, so I love it when people dance,” he continued. ‘I want the audience to be involved, and dancing is a way that people can get right down with the music and the musicians. . . . They’re feeling what is happening. And if you get that kind of reaction from a crowd, it feeds back into the music and makes it that much hotter and intense.

“I really strive to have everyone in the room included, hoping that the music permeates not only the audience but the bartenders and waitresses.”

*

He has two groups: City Light, with which he pays tribute to Basie, Ellington and others, and a quartet that plays original music with an accent on the blues. For tonight’s gig, City Light will feature solid jazzmen from the L.A. area including Ron Anthony, a guitarist formerly with Frank Sinatra and George Shearing, pianist Dave Mackay, bassist Simeon Pillich, tenor saxman Bruce Eskovitz, trombone player Slyde Hyde and trumpet player Pat Morrissey. “With that horn section,” Basse said, “we can really get that Kansas City sound.”

The set list can include anything from “Everyday I Have the Blues” to “All of Me,” which Basse sings in a gravely vocal style he says has been influenced by Louis Armstrong, Tom Waits, Jimmy Rushing and Taj Mahal.

Basse was born in San Jose and raised in Nebraska. He started working at age 14 and has been singing since he was 19. He’d been backing up a singer who “told me I could make more money if I sang,” he recalls. “I didn’t sing in high school because I was overweight and wanted to be back behind the drums. But when I lost a few pounds, I liked the idea of making more money and impressing the women. That was a major goal.”

His favorite drummers are Jake Hanna and Papa Jo Jones. “They swing. What’s not to like? Myself, I’m not a purist. I’m not there to show people how intricate I am. I’m there to show people my craft, and to include them.”

* David Basse and his City Light Orchestra play tonight from 8:30 to midnight at the Renaissance Cafe, 24701 Del Prado, Dana Point. No cover, no minimum. (714) 661-6003.