In Good Accompany : Drummer Paul Kreibich Says Role as Rhythm Maker Puts Him in Perfect Position to Be a Bandleader

Take a quick survey of the jazz spectrum and you’ll find that drummers rarely are bandleaders, either on recordings or in live performance. Drummer-leaders such as Max Roach, Elvin Jones, Tony Williams and Louie Bellson (along with late greats Chick Webb, Art Blakey and Buddy Rich) are clearly outnumbered by leaders who play wind, brass, keyboard or stringed (namely guitar) instruments.

And why not? Isn’t the role of the drummer in jazz to accompany, not stand out front and play melodies or improvise, as with, say, a trumpeter or saxophonist? Shouldn’t an instrumentalist who is in the spotlight and who offers a melodic aspect of music be better suited to the role of leader than one who plays a supporting part?

Not necessarily, says drummer Paul Kreibich. The 35-year-old musician who has played with Ray Charles and trumpeter Red Rodney thinks the drum chair is an ideal place to front a jazz ensemble.

“The fact that you are accompanying everybody and you have to know everybody’s time feeling gives you a more objective ear than, say, a horn player. That makes you a good organizer,” said Kreibich, who was born in Los Angeles and raised in Costa Mesa, in a recent telephone interview.

In addition, Kreibich points out, the drummer is responsible for the beat, that pulse that drives a band.

“The drummer sparks the whole rhythmic feeling. You’re not a cheerleader, but a motivating factor. That makes it easy to lead.”

Still, the tall, lanky Kreibich has been a sideman for most of his 20-year career as a jazz drummer. He’s worked with Charles, Carmen McRae, Rodney, Mose Allison and Anita O’Day.

But Wednesdays at the Studio Cafe on Balboa Island, it’s Kreibich’s name on the marquee. The trapsman fronts a trio that usually features keyboardist Dave Witham and any one of a number of bass players, though tonight Joe Lettieri will be the pianist and Jimmy Hoff is on bass. Kreibich becomes a co-leader when saxophonist Eric Marienthal is off from his regular appearances with Chick Corea’s Elektric band, as he is currently.

Kreibich and friends--who have known each other since they were all students at Costa Mesa High School--have been at the Studio Cafe for nine years, an eternity by jazz standards.

“One of us--Eric or me, or Dave, if neither of us is there--holds the fort,” he said. “Like when I was with Ray Charles from 1985 to 1988, six months a year I sent in a substitute.”

Kreibich, who is working nightclubs about six nights a week these days, looks forward to Wednesdays, for at the Studio Cafe he gets to play the kind of music he loves most: unabashed straight-ahead mainstream jazz.

“It’s honest music,” he said of tunes the group offers, which include classics by Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, Miles Davis and other jazz giants, as well as originals by band members. “There’s a lot of depth in it.”

And it’s the kind of music that makes demands on a player, he said. “Each instrumentalist has to be responsible and know the repertoire. You can’t (fake it). It’s either there or it isn’t.”

While mainstream jazz also can make demands on a listener, Kreibich feels that it deserves a wider audience than it has.

“Jazz has a bad name because people don’t know what it is,” he said. “Sure, not everybody can relate to it, but if it were promoted better, more people could understand it. It’s not that far out.”

Hearing a band in person is a great way for a neophyte to discover jazz, Kreibich said.

“The fact that it’s live makes it grab people,” he said. “I’ve been at the Studio and watched people who have never heard jazz before, and they start listening. They start relating to music that’s a lot more adventuresome than (what) the pop record companies put out,” he said.

Jazz grabbed Kreibich when he was a teen-ager. He’d been playing drums since elementary school--”I seemed to have a natural inclination for it,” he said--and was excited when he heard records by Buddy Rich and Max Roach.

But when Bob Wrate, one of Kreibich’s early and most influential teachers (he’s also studied with noted instructors Freddie Gruber and Forrest Clark) played a Miles Davis record featuring drum prodigy Tony Williams, it knocked out the 15-year-old Kreibich. He found Williams’ groundbreaking style inspiring, and it led him to explore the playing of other modern drummers, among them Billy Higgins and Elvin Jones.

One of Kreibich’s earliest jazz gigs was with saxophonist Vince Wallace, with whom he worked in Laguna Beach at the No Exit Cafe and in Balboa at the Studio Cafe, at the latter from 1974 to 1977. It was during this period that he shaped the responsive, musical approach he employs now.

“Vince got me to play more like I was a horn man, playing on the form of the tune, not just playing the drums,” said Kreibich, who can be heard on Charles’ “Just Between Us” album and Charlie Shoemake’s “Strollin’.”

“Then I began to study piano, and that made me even more musically oriented, as I started to learn on the piano the tunes that I was playing. I still do that today.”

Touring with Charles was a rugged but rewarding experience.

“It was tough at first,” he said. “You have to play a lot of different kinds of music, and you’re under a lot of pressure, playing really big concerts. And Ray wants everything to be perfect. And he tested me, always trying something new to see how I would respond. But once we got to know each other, we had a good rapport.”

Back in Los Angeles since leaving the singer, Kreibich has found work with O’Day, Shoemake, pianists David Silverman and Dave MacKay, and, of course, at the Studio. He especially favors playing with piano-bass-drums trios.

“There’s something very intimate about that combination,” he said. “There’s a lot of interplay and communication and ESP that can happen. And all three instruments are played with the hands, wrists and fingertips, so you can be really responsive.”

Kreibich finds music, which is the only occupation he’s ever had, to be remarkably satisfying.

“There’s a spiritual depth that I get in playing music that I don’t get anywhere else,” he said. “I feel different after I’ve played. And when I play with friends over a long time, like at the Studio, it makes a deep relationship. It’s fulfilling to express myself this way. And while I’m not cleaning up financially, I feel privileged to make my living this way.”

Drummer Paul Kreibich, saxophonist Eric Marienthal, pianist Joe Lettieri and bassist Jimmy Hoff play at 8 tonight at the Studio Cafe, 100 S. Main St., Balboa. Admission: free. Information: (714) 675-7760.