An aversion to the spotlight might seem unusual for a nationally acclaimed bassist whose credits range from jazz legends Sarah Vaughan, Joe and Art Pepper to such pop luminaries as Linda Ronstadt, Rod Stewart and Madonna.
But when San Diego native Bob Magnusson was offered a prominent Los Angeles nightclub booking after his debut solo album, “Revelation,” earned rave reviews in 1979, he was hesitant to accept the high-profile offer.
“I got a call from Carey Leverette, the owner of Donte’s, where I’d played a lot as a sideman,” recalled Magnusson, who was only 21 when he ed the Buddy Rich Big Band in 1968.
“He said: ‘Your record is getting a lot of airplay. Bring your group in and I’ll give you a weekend.’ I said: ‘I don’t have a group. I’ve never been much of a leader.’ And he said: ‘Get one together!’ ”
Magnusson did exactly that.
Faster than you can get on (or off) almost any main thoroughfare in Los Angeles, the band that soon became Road Work Ahead was born. It teamed Magnusson with veteran San Diego Symphony percussionist and jazz drummer Jim Plank, young Del Mar guitar wiz Peter Sprague and esteemed Los Angeles pianist Bill Mays, who — while serving here in the Navy in 1962 — had met Magnusson and Plank at a Mission Hills jazz club.
Road Work Ahead took its stage moniker from Magnusson’s second album, which featured Plank, Sprague and Mays. Their next album together was under the band name Road Work Ahead.
The quartet’s artistic excellence and sparkling musical interplay quickly earned wide attention and praise. Remarkably, the band’s lineup has never changed, even after Mays moved to New York in 1984 and the gap between Road Work Ahead’s gigs could be measured in years, not months.
Now, as Magnusson’s acute osteoarthritis makes it increasingly painful for him to play his beloved bass, he has cut his performances down to just one a week — each Saturday night at Harry’s Bar & Grill in University Town Centre. When he re-teams Thursday and Saturday with Road Work Ahead at, respectively, The Merc in Temecula and Dizzy’s in Pacific Beach, it may well be the last time this 35-year-old band performs anywhere. (Ticket information for both shows appears at the conclusion of this article.)
Or, as Mays put it in a Wednesday interview from his home in rural Pennsylvania: “Road Work Ahead is no longer going on the road after these next couple of concerts.”
Just as Magnusson, Plank and Sprague opted not to replace Mays when he moved to the Big Apple — keeping the band dormant except for a few occasions Mays made brief West Coast visits — Magnusson’s Road Work Ahead partners won’t continue the group without him.
“It couldn’t go on without Bob. It was his (band) to start and his to close,” Plank said. “Bob is such an individual player; he’s unique. It’s not a question of someone replacing him, because that’s not possible, and it shouldn’t be.”
“I can’t see playing with anybody else,” agreed Mays, who in the 1970s spent a year with Magnusson as a member of vocal giant Vaughan’s trio.
Sprague, who was a teenager when he met Magnusson and Plank, views the band’s imminent dissolution with mixed feelings.
“Bob started it and was the instigator, so there’s some sadness,” the guitarist said. “But I just spoke to him and his spirit is fantastic. He told me he’s played a lot of notes in his life and it’s not the end of the world for him to be in this chapter. I don’t sense any sadness from him, so that’s good to know.”
Music, happily, still plays a key role for Magnusson, who will continue teaching bass at SDSU, Mesa College and Point Loma Nazarene University. His low-key weekly gig at Harry’s notwithstanding, he is at peace that his days of touring are behind him.
“I play less and less, and I’m not doing anything that’s stressful,” he said. “I can’t play the fast bebop (songs) anymore or do long jobs. I’m just playing once a week at Harry’s with (guitarist) Jaime Valle and (saxophonist/flutist) Tripp Sprague. We play standards and Brazilian music, and it’s not strenuous. I just make it through that and pretty much don’t touch the bass the rest of the week. I do teach, but I just show students things for a few minutes. So I let the guys in Road Work Ahead know I’m playing things by ear and warned them this might be the end of it for me.”
Magnusson, who played French horn player in the San Diego Symphony as a teen, took up bass in 1966. He began experiencing extreme pain in his hands and shoulders several years ago. Subsequent medical exams disclosed that there was no more cartilage in his wrists, which are now essentially bone on bone.
“I feel good I can play a little and I’m leery of surgery,” Magnusson said. “The doctor told me it’s a combination of osteoarthritis, growing older and this repetitive motion I’ve done with both of my wrists, playing bass, for nearly 50 years now.
“I’m at a point in my life, at 67, where I’m feeling very blessed I’ve had the career I’ve had. I’ve played with people I’ve imagined and dreamed about playing with, many of my heroes. So I’m not sitting around moping, or wondering: ‘Why me?’ ”
Regardless of whether Road Work Ahead concludes this week or, with a medical breakthrough, continues, the band’s rich artistic legacy continues to pay dividends for its listeners.
The group’s latest album, last year’s “Intersection,” is a sterling example of how four musicians with an unusually empathetic musical rapport can create work that exceeds the sum of its finely honed parts.
“In this particular group, no one is into showboating or playing flagrantly fast.” Sprague said. “We like this blend we have of straight-ahead jazz and standards, and to take it out a little bit. Everyone likes moments of chaos, too!”
Plank last year retired from his role as a percussionist in the San Diego Symphony, ending a 55-year tenure with the orchestra. Previous Road Work Ahead performances sometimes needed to be squeezed in around his schedule with the symphony. Together, he and Magnusson have worked as the rhythm section for numerous jazz greats visiting San Diego. They also performed together twice at the Hollywood Bowl with singer Diane Schuur, in one instance anchoring the Count Basie Orchestra as it accompanied Schuur during an edition of the Playboy Jazz Festival.
“The whole concept of Road Work Ahead that Bob had was that we have a cooperative band,” Plank said. “And that meant we would — as a group — select the music we played. There wasn’t any person in charge. It has, truly and wonderfully so, always been the most collaborative effort four people could have. So, on a musical and personal level, it’s always been a wonderful collaboration. That’s what makes it so special. And even though there may be years that have gone by when we haven’t played together, when we do, it’s like it was only yesterday.”
Those sentiments are shared by Mays, an unusually prolific and eclectic pianist who recently published the second edition of his memoir, “Stories of the Road, The Studios, Sidemen & Singer: 55 Years in the Music Biz.”
“It’s a different band than any other I’ve been involved with, in many ways,” said Mays, whose jazz credits include working with Gerry Mulligan, Phil Woods, Sonny Stitt, Bud Shank, Shelly Manne and Mark Murphy.
“One key difference is we’re all very close friends, on and off the band stand, and have been for forty years, so its like a family. And all four of us write and arrange for the band. And because all of us have classical, as well as jazz, backgrounds, we have a bigger palette of colors to draw from.”
Fittingly, the last word goes to Magnusson, the man who started Road Work Ahead not to place himself in the spotlight, but to create a platform for musical adventure and enjoyment with some of his closest friends.
“Playing with this band has always been one of my very favorite things that Ive done, and I’ve been blessed to do some wonderful things,” said Magnusson, whose father was the principal clarinetist in the San Diego Symphony for many years.
“The combination of musicians in Road Work Ahead has been a joy for me every time we’ve played. And we get along great when were on little road trips. It’s a pleasure to be together, which is kind of rare. We really love and enjoy playing together.”
ROAD WORK AHEAD, FEATURING BOB MAGNUSSON, BILL MAYS, JIM PLANK & PETER SPRAGUE
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday
Where: Jazz at The Merc, 42051 Main Street, Temecula
Tickets: $15
Phone: (866) 653-8696
Online: temeculatheater.org
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
ROAD WORK AHEAD, FEATURING BOB MAGNUSSON, BILL MAYS, JIM PLANK & PETER SPRAGUE
Where: Dizzy’s, 4275 Mission Bay Drive (in the showroom of San Diego Jet Ski Rentals), Pacific Beach
Tickets: $15
Phone: (858) 270-7467
Online: dizzysjazz.com
