Back on the Jazz Circuit--Without Skipping a Beat

Danny Pucillo is one of many who have fallen in love at first sight, only the object of his affections was a drum set.

Pucillo was about 10 when his mother took him from their home in Mount Vernon, N.Y., to nearby Manhattan, where they heard Gene Krupa, the drum whiz who rose to fame playing with Benny Goodman.

“It was at the Strand Theatre on Broadway, and Gene had his drums set up with lights on each side, so that his shadow projected on the curtain behind. I’ll never forget it,” says Pucillo, who now lives in Northridge. “He was such a great showman and I was overwhelmed with the whole thing.”

In the four-decade-plus career that blossomed from that early blush, Pucillo has been able to play with people who made jazz history.

Here are some of the jazz greats with whom he’s played: Coleman Hawkins, Sarah Vaughan, Joe Pass, Peggy Lee, Claude Thornhill, Joe Williams and Victor Feldman.

In New York in the mid-’50s, Pucillo worked seven or eight times with Hawkins, whom many call the father of the jazz tenor saxophone and whose 1939 recording of “Body and Soul” is a classic. He says that each experience provided not only a paycheck but an invaluable lesson.

“I learned so much about playing just from watching him,” says Pucillo, 63. “The way he’d move, the feeling he gave off, I’d try to create that same feeling in myself. He made musicians play their very best.”

Pucillo moved to Los Angeles to work in the recording and TV studios, and he was successful, performing on shows starring Andy Williams, Sonny and Cher, and others. He’s also been the accompanist for some well-known pop stars, from Vic Damone to Julie Andrews.

Now, the drummer is back to playing jazz full time, and happy about it. He leads a trio--Claude Williamson (piano) and Ernie McDaniel (bass)--plus guest artists each Thursday through Saturday at Monty’s Steakhouse in Woodland Hills. Tonight, Pucillo and friends back trumpeter Al Aarons. April 4 to 6 is sax man Roger Neumann, then from April 11 to 13, it’s cornetist Bill Berry.

“The trio plays the first set, and then the guest comes in,” says Pucillo. “We just let him play what he wants.”

That’s similar to the arrangement that Pucillo has with Monty’s owner, Larry Levine. “He loves what we do,” he says. “Imagine having a three-night-a-week jazz job and the boss is letting me do what I want.”

* Danny Pucillo’s trio, with guest Al Aarons, appears tonight-Saturday at Monty’s Steakhouse, 5371 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Woodland Hills. Show times are 7:30 to 11:30 p.m. today, 8:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday. No cover, no minimum; (818) 716-9736.

More History: Another artist who’s been part of jazz history is reed man Bennie Maupin, who arrives with his quintet at Bjlauzezs on Friday and Saturday. Maupin, a Detroit native who lived in New York when the jazz scene was teeming in the ‘60s and early ‘70s, recorded on the first major jazz/fusion album, Miles Davis’ “Bitches Brew” (Columbia). After moving to Southern California in 1972, he joined pianist Herbie Hancock’s band and was heard on one of the biggest-selling jazz records of all time, Hancock’s “Head Hunters.”

After a lengthy hiatus, Maupin, 54, returned to active playing in 1993, and is glad he did. “These jobs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and at the Bel Age hotel have inspired me,” says Maupin, who plays tenor and soprano saxes, flute and bass clarinet. “I want to continue to have something going locally, build an audience here at home.”

Maupin is playing Bjlauzezs for the first time. His band consists of former Weather Report bassist Alphonso Johnson, as well as David Arney (piano), Kenny Sara (drums) and Angel Figueroa (percussion). The group will offer both originals and old favorites, such as “Neophilia,” which Maupin wrote while in Japan and was recorded by late trumpet great Lee Morgan. That piece, among others, has changed with time.

“We now play it faster, with a different meter,” says Maupin. “It has a whole different vibe.”

Maupin feels blessed to make his living with music. “Music gives me hope that people can unite,” he says. “It does have that power to help society.”

* Bennie Maupin plays 8:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday at Bjlauzezs, 14502 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. $5 cover without dinner. Information: (818) 789-4583.