PIANIST MELDS MUSICAL DISCIPLINES

Ask most jazz pianists about their musical heroes and you’ll usually hear the names of keyboard greats such as Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson or perhaps Thelonius Monk.

But Ronnie Brown, a musician reared on the East Coast who has been living and performing in Orange County jazz clubs for more than 20 years, has a different idol: “Vladimir Horowitz,” Brown said during a recent interview at Carmelo’s in Corona del Mar, where he is currently appearing Fridays through Sundays.

For his perspective to make sense, it helps to know that Brown was classically trained at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston before turning to jazz.

“I’m a great fan of Horowitz,” Brown, 45, said, “but I could never be a Horowitz. You have to work at it all day and all night.

“I really admire the classical artists, but you have to make that your whole life. It would take me six to seven hours practice a day at least to get into the concert attitude as far as classical music goes. There are so many other things to do in life--you have to pick some roses too.”

It’s fair to say that along with his deep admiration for Horowitz, Brown also holds a healthy respect for Tatum, Peterson and the other jazz giants.

“I was fortunate to see Art Tatum before he died. It was at the Copley Square Hotel in Boston, and he was phenomenal,” said Brown, who is also versed on vibes, string bass and percussion.

His dual love for classical music and jazz explains why he prefers to call his stylistic approach “Classics in Jazz,” the title he used for a concert he gave Tuesday at UC Irvine.

For the same reason, when asked about his favorite songwriters and composers, Brown moves quickly from Ellington, Porter and Gershwin to Brahms, Liszt and Bach.

“I have a great love for jazz and interpretive playing, where you can take eight bars of music and do 20 different things to it. With my background and technique from the conservatory, I think it makes for a very interesting combination,” he said.

“A song like ‘My Funny Valentine’ is very conducive to that. I’ll take two, three or four notes, and turn them upside down. Or I’ll take a song like Lionel Richie’s ‘Hello’ and end up making it sort of like Johann Sebastian Bach.”

Brown’s career has taken him through a variety of positions, from accompanist to the late actor/comic Ted Knight to entertainment director and performer at the Balboa Bay Club for about six years in the 1960s to entertainment director of the Orange County Fair for three years in the early ‘70s.

In addition to his local performances, Brown keeps a busy schedule of touring the country: He has given about 600 concerts during his 10-year affiliation with Columbia Artists, one of the largest artist booking agencies.

While he enjoys the intimacy of playing in small clubs such as Carmelo’s, Brown would like to see greater opportunities for jazz artists to perform in concert settings as he did this week at UCI.

“I like concerts because you’ve got a captive audience. They come just to listen and are usually very quiet and attentive,” he said. “At the same time, I have to have an outlet to get close to people. That’s why I like Carmelo’s.”

The concert setting also gives Brown more opportunity to expand his musical backing, which usually consists of just a bassist or perhaps a drummer. Tuesday he was backed by a quintet comprising top local jazz players.

“It’s nice to have a variety of guys with you who are some of the top talents in the world,” Brown said, adding that he believes musicians living and working in Orange County “should have much more recognition and get much more money. There are a lot of great artists out there selling apples. That’s a terrible crime.”

Although it has been 10 years since Brown last made an album, he hopes to end that hiatus this year by returning to the recording studio. This time, he’ll also have original compositions for which he and his wife of six years, Lyana, collaborated as songwriting partners. (He composes the music, she writes lyrics).

“Recording is really the bread and butter of music business. I just have to get up and go and do it,” he said.

Eventually, Brown hopes to open his own restaurant-nightclub--he professes to be an amateur gourmet chef as well as an avid skier and certified scuba diver--and he feels the time and place may soon be right in Orange County.

“I think jazz is coming much more into the fore right now--thank God.”

LIVE ACTION: Vital Information, a band formed by Journey drummer Steve Smith, will be at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on Monday. Leon Redbone will play the Coach House on Feb. 26. The date was listed incorrectly in last Sunday’s Calendar . . . The Association returns to the Crazy Horse Steak House in San Juan Capistrano on Jan. 26. . . . The Bell Jar will perform at Night Moves in Huntington Beach on Jan. 31.