Band Primo to play Long Beach fest in honor of member

A long-awaited reunion by core players of the Long Beach jazz band Primo was just weeks away when founding member Bernard Soto fell seriously ill.

Last month, after playing his congas on the city's boardwalk, Soto, 57, suffered a brain aneurysm.

The group members considered canceling their performance at this year's Long Beach Jazz Festival, which began Thursday and ends Sunday.

But the band decided to play on, to cheer Soto in his recovery and to pay homage to its roots, said guitarist Dean Brown, who's played with well-known jazz artists including Marcus Miller and the Brecker Brothers. The band is scheduled to perform Saturday at the Long Beach Public Library and at Monterey restaurant.

"So much of who I am as an artist has to do with my post-college experience on Long Island," said Brown, who joined Primo in the early 1980s and now lives in California and tours with Roberta Flack. The Dean Brown Band will perform on Sunday. "This is going to be fun, but bittersweet without Bernard and his boundless energy on stage," he said.

The festival, now in its eighth year, will feature about 70 artists playing 24 free concerts at the city's library and in a handful of local restaurants, said director Steve Adelson, a regarded composer and player of the Chapman Stick, an electric string instrument.

The lineup includes both local acts and international artists including bassist Bakithi Kumalo, a native of South Africa who plays with Paul Simon and has his own band, and Edmar Castaneda, a Colombian harpist.

Primo was founded in the late 1960s, playing in Soto's basement on National Boulevard in Long Beach, and the members soon began experimenting with mixing the rock influences of their day with elements of Latin jazz, according to Soto's cousin, Ray Soto, a founding member.

"We were influenced by that whole rock psychedelic era that was happening back then, but we had our Latin roots," said Ray Soto, 58, of Mahopac, N.Y. "That was like a school ground for us. We moved on to other stuff, but Bernard kept that band together."

Over the years, scores of musicians have played under the name Primo, with Bernard Soto pushing to keep the group going even as he toured as a percussionist with the metal band Godsmack and Argentine guitarist Alex Fox. Fox is scheduled to perform on Sunday.

This weekend, the reunited Primo will include Brown; Ray Soto, who works for the FDNY Fire Academy; keyboardist Gerry Etkins, who until recently played on "The Tonight Show" band; bassist Schuyler Deale, who has played with Billy Joel and Michael Bolton; drummer Lionel Cordew, who's toured with Bill Evans and Angelique Kidjo, among others; and percussionist Emedin Rivera, who's played with Paquito D'Rivera and Harry Belafonte.

Though Bernard Soto won't be in attendance - he's still recovering at a rehabilitation center and was unavailable for comment - the band hopes the good vibes will reach Soto and help him heal.

"It's such a shame because Bernard finally got us all together in one room, and he can't do the gig," Brown said. "It means so much to him for us to actually all be playing at the same time."