There's something special about a jazz gig in a dark, wood-paneled basement. Stepping down into the Cellar beneath Johnny Foley's Irish House at 432 O'Farrell on any Tuesday night to hear the Collective West Jazz Orchestra do its thing, it's easy to imagine that you've stepped back 80 years into a prohibition-era speakeasy. The doorman asks for a three-dollar cover, but he should be asking for a password as well. "Bulldog sent me."
     The Collective West Jazz Orchestra is a 12-piece big band that fills up the Foley's basement each week with enjoyable, high-energy jazz. The repertoire includes a full range of big band styles, from Count Basie classics, to bop and post-bop ballads and burners, to challenging contemporary numbers. You might walk in as trombonist Danny Grewen unfolds a soulful slide trombone solo that gets the crowd howling during the bluesy "Country Boy" then bop along to Rob Batchko's spirited tenor solo during an intriguing big band arrangement of Monk's "Think of One." You might get to hear the band's up-tempo version of "Just Friends" and feel like you're listening to a Las Vegas pit band circa 1964.
     The orchestra is led by 28-year-old baritone saxophonist Fil Lorenz, who fell in love with big bands while a member of the prestigious Menlo-Atherton High School Orchestra. While the lineup may change from week to week, the band includes trumpeters John Worley, Joel Ryan and Mike Olmos, guitarist Sebastien Lanson, slide trombonist Grewen, valve trombonist Phil Allen, alto saxophonist Ron Graham, Batchko and Doug Rowan on tenor sax, drummer Brian Fishler, and bassist Fred Randolph. Lorenz handles most of the arranging, with regular contributions from Allen.
     These musicians aren't here for the money. They're splitting that three-dollar door 12 ways. It's clear they enjoying playing jazz—with each other, in that basement, for this crowd. Half the people in the place are their girlfriends and buddies, but that's part of the charm, too. Lorenz calls the scene "a big, comfortable hang."
     The Tuesday night Foley's gig is the only night of the week that all 12 musicians get together, so there is no rehearsal time. Even so, the orchestra is decidedly not a pick-up band. A core of these musicians plays together regularly in other groups, including the Marcus Shelby Orchestra, the Nick Rossi Set, and Lorenz's Little Big Band. Most important, these are all experienced, working jazz players who know how to handle a chart and a solo.
     Lorenz began trying to put a big band together in 1998, after returning to the Bay Area from a four-year Navy stint. His original inspirations were Count Basie, and Maynard Ferguson's bands of the '50s and '60s. The current manifestation of the orchestra evolved two years ago when the group moved into the cellar of Kell's in North Beach for weekly rehearsals. People began showing up to hear the group, but the space was physically inhospitable. Lorenz went looking for something better.
     "I was totally into doing it underground," Lorenz explains, "Because I like the vibe. I went over to Foley's, and one of the partners, Martin Connolly, showed me downstairs. I said, 'Wow. Perfect.' We moved into Foley's last summer, and it's been terrific."
     The relatively casual nature of the gig has its pluses and minuses. On more complicated arrangements, section work and timing is not always pristine. And, of course, band members go missing when they get called for paying gigs. No matter. The band has a solid enough reputation that Lorenz can always find top-level players to sit in.
     And it's great to watch Lorenz talk the band through the changes before numbers and see him direct traffic between sections and solos while the band plays.
     "The reason that stuff happens," Lorenz says, "is that I know the charts. So I'm thinking, all right, there's a shout chorus coming up that has the lead trumpet hanging out there on a high F for X number of measures. If, by the time we get to that shout chorus, somehow the band drops tempo somewhere, I know we're going to be murdered. So, OK, where are we going to make these transitions? We need to compress the time so it's not that noticeable. Just bump up the time of every chorus so that by the time we get there we're still OK."
     All right, I don't know what most of that means, either. But it's fun to hang in that basement and watch Lorenz and the band work it out right in front of you.
     The performances of the Collective West Jazz Orchestra are always enjoyable, and whether you're a serious jazz fan or not, the high quality music, relaxed ambience, and tradition-laden setting make Tuesday nights at Foley's a cool, casual downtown night out.