Beginning on Up Beat

Since this New Year’s Eve falls on Wednesday, you get a bonus: a weekend-type night in the middle of the week. In life, if you look hard enough, there always seems to be something to be thankful for.

Thelma Jones, the ruby rich-voiced versatile singer who’s in charge of the New Year’s festivities at Chadney’s in Burbank, feels that way. “I’m an eternal optimist and I love New Year’s. It’s like a new beginning,” she said. “I don’t know what’s in store for me in the new year, but I look forward with hope. And I always like to start the new year by singing since that’s what I really like to do.”

The North Carolina native moves from jazz to R & B and pop with ease in her shows, and it’s a pop song, Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” that she calls her signature piece. Jones recalled one special New Year’s Eve when she sang the song in India while she was visiting spiritual places in that country.

“It was wonderful because there were people from all over the world and, despite the political differences, or the fact that people didn’t speak the same language, the music and the love transcended it all,” she said. “You could see it in the people’s faces and eyes.”

Like Jones, multifaceted jazz and pop pianist Don Randi, who’s working his 28th New Year’s Eve at his Baked Potato in North Hollywood, is upbeat on the last night of the year. But he knows the sword can cut both ways.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun, and almost everybody’s in a great mood,” said Randi, who’ll be leading his band Quest with special guest vocalists Leah Randi (his daughter) and Rick Jarrett.

“And we’re looking for 1998 to be better than what 1997 was. But for some people, it’s kind of melancholy. They think about what they didn’t do in the last year.”

Randi’s one to look ahead with a gleam in his eye. “Now 2000, that’s going to be the wildest New Year’s ever,” he said and laughed his hearty laugh. “I’m telling people they better reserve next year.”

Over at Papashon’s in Encino, bassist Jennifer York gets the New Year’s Eve chores. Trumpeter Jonathan Dane will sit in with her, and though he likes the festive night, he also had a more jovially mercenary attitude.

“It’s a night to make more bread,” he said. “Making triple scale--that’s nice. The drag is you get to watch everyone else have fun.”

Dane remembered New Year’s in 1989 when he decided he wanted to have some of the action. So at midnight, as the band he was working with was playing “Auld Lang Syne,” he jumped off the stage. “I grabbed my girlfriend, gave her a big kiss and danced with her. It was wonderful to have that moment with my woman and celebrate.”

Also on New Year’s Eve: The dandy singer Dewey Erney teams up with pianist Marty Harris for festive investigations of standards, 8 p.m. to 1 a.m., at Ca’ Del Sole, 4100 N. Cahuenga Blvd., North Hollywood. No cover, regular menu. (818) 985-4669.

BE THERE

Thelma Jones appears New Year’s Eve 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., at Chadney’s, 3000 W. Olive St., Burbank. $10 cover, favors, champagne toast, special dinner menu. (818) 843-5333.

Don Randi plays New Year’s Eve, 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., at the Baked Potato, 3787 Cahuenga Blvd., North Hollywood. $65 per person includes dinner, two drinks, favors, champagne toast and a lottery ticket. (818) 980-1615.

Jonathan Dane guests with the Jennifer York quartet, 8 p.m. to 1 a.m., at Papashon, 15910 Ventura Blvd., Encino. No cover, special menu, champagne toast. (818) 783-6664.