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VOLUME 35 / NUMBER 16

APRIL 20 , 2006

“Well, you know, I, okay,

let me see,” Charles McPherson

sounded more spirited than stumped.

I’d just asked a saxophone legend —

Charles McPherson! — what originally

attracted him to the saxophone. That was

like asking the sun why it was hot. But

McPherson’s husky, perpetually happy-

sounding voice shaded into a playful growl.

“I guess we’ll get into some primordial…”

ConTInued on Page 26

“Well, you know, I, okay,

let me see,” Charles McPherson

sounded more spirited than stumped.

I’d just asked a saxophone legend —

Charles McPherson! — what originally

attracted him to the saxophone. That was

like asking the sun why it was hot. But

McPherson’s husky, perpetually happy-

sounding voice shaded into a playful growl.

“I guess we’ll get into some primordial…”

ConTInued on Page 26

26

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“MY MOM

GOT ME A

HORN, A

SECONDHAND

SAXOPHONE,

THAT WAS

A PRETTY

GOOD ONE.”

(CONTINUED FROM FRONT PAGE)

And then McPherson breathed in and started off — improvising soulful

answers. “I was attracted to the sax first of all when I was really young, when

I was, say, four, when bands used to come through Joplin, Missouri, at the

foot of the Ozarks.” (When McPherson says “Missouri,” it sounds like “Miz-

zura.”) “And these territorial swing bands would come through the area in

the summertime and play at a big park, and I was mesmerized and very

attracted to the saxophone. Now what got me, of course, was the shiny, gold

color.” (The gruff and feeling way McPherson punched that word, “gold.…”)

“And I guess the shape of it,” he said. (He drew out the word “shape,” swoop-

ing through the intonation as though his mouth were imagining a sax’s

swanlike nape, and valved and keyed body, and the sudden swerve upward to

its opening, called a “bell.”) And then McPherson said it again, “The sha-a-

aype of a saxophone.” He went on, “And, of course, I liked the sound itself.

But I didn’t get a chance to play one until I was about 12 or 13.”

(As an aside: I’ve begun tonotice, after a few weeks of talking tosaxophonists, that they all speakclearly yet distinctively. They all seemto keep their tonal quirks andaccents, their twangs, drawls, burrs,and brogues, yet you can understandperfectly every word out of asaxophonist’s mouth.)

So Charles McPherson finallygot the chance to put his hands on asaxophone, and how did he knowwhat to do? Who taught the man toplay?

“In school I got a horn when Iwas in school,” he said. “A second-hand saxophone that was a prettygood one, by the way. And with thehorn, you got a few free lessons. So Idid take a few free lessons with theretail store that sold the horn. Andthen after that, I studied at a musicschool that was quite prestigious inDetroit, called Larry Teal’s. LarryTeal was a classical saxophonist ofnote. He’s probably not living now.But he had probably the premier pri-vately run music school in the area.”

Did McPherson learn to playother instruments as well?

“I play tenor,” he said, “and I playpiano a little bit.”

By “tenor,” McPherson meant“tenor saxophone.” He was tellingme that his main instrument was thealto sax — a smaller, lighter, moreagile, higher-toned, and differentlytuned instrument than the tenor sax.

Five types of saxophones exist,although the fifth, the bass sax, is anoversized curiosity and is hardlyplayed anywhere anymore. The otherfour saxes — soprano, alto, tenor,and baritone — are distinct and sep-arate musical entities, even thoughthe only physical differences are howlong they are and how they’re tuned.(To get longer, saxes go fromstraight, to curved, to bigger andcurved, to bigger still and curved andwith a brass curlicue on top. Thesubject of instrumental tuning is fas-cinating but would take us deep intothe scientific study of acoustics.)

Instead, back to CharlesMcPherson! Why did he concentrateon the alto sax?

“The alto was what I had,” hesaid matter-of-factly. “My mom wasable to buy one because they were alittle cheaper than tenors. And theywere smaller, maybe a little bettersuited for me, being a kid. So thatwas it, more than the sound.”

How did McPherson get hisbreak into the professional-music

world?“I played with Charlie Mingus,”

he said, invoking the name of one ofthe five or six greatest all-time jazzcomposers. Then, with characteristicunderstatement, McPherson added,“The bass player.”

He went on. “Now Mingus wasold enough to be my father, and hewas pretty well known, and when Ijoined his band I was only 20 yearsold.”

And McPherson had to try out?“Yeah, I had to audition, along

with a trumpet player. And we got inhis band. And that was the beginningof my career. Playing with Mingus,who was an internationally knownfigure.”

McPherson played with Mingusthroughout the ’60s and went on torecord and tour with such jazz greatsas Billy Eckstein, Lionel Hampton,Art Farmer, and Wynton Marsalis.Probably McPherson’s greatest claimto fame came in 1988, when ClintEastwood chose him to rerecord thealto saxophone parts for late jazzgreat Charlie Parker’s ensembles inthe major motion picture Bird, star-ring Forest Whitaker.

Surely such a distinguishedcareer had required a lot of practice?

“I practice at home,” McPhersontold me. “I try to get in at least threehours a day. I can’t always do that,but if I could have my way, I wouldprobably practice four or five hours aday.”

Always at the same time?“No. I get it when I can.”And were people bothered?“I’m sure someone’s bothered.”

He laughed. “You know, usually, Istop around 10 o’clock in theevening.”

Did McPherson live alone?“No, I’m married. And I got a

little kid. My youngest kid is 13.”His practicing at home didn’t

bother them?McPherson’s tone grew jovial

and maybe half-facetious. “Well, youknow, I got a feeling I do botherthem.” He chuckled. “But I try to beconsiderate. I go away in the otherpart of the house and I close doors.Or I have my garage nicely situated,and I can go in there and practiceand not bother anybody.”

What were his practice sessionslike?

“I practice scales. I’ll spend a lotof time doing finger exercises. I prac-tice harmonic progressions, youknow, harmonic movements going

Charles McPherson (top), Joe Marillo

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from point A to point B.And then I have recordsthat I’ll play along with.They’re called MinusOne. And basically, theyhave the rhythm sectionplaying on these tunes,and that’s all, so you canplay along. So it’s kindof like the karaoke ofthe jazz world.”

Did McPhersonthink about the saxo-phone all day, evenwhen he wasn’t playingit?

“Yeah, I do. I’m inlove with the instru-ment. It’s such a compli-cated piece of physics,first of all. It’s a compli-cated piece of machin-ery. It’s a lot of movingparts. So Murphy’s Lawhas a wonderful timewith the saxophone: if itcan go wrong, it will.And there’s plenty ofthings that can gowrong. And many of thethings that go wrongcan make you soundbad on the horn, if theinstrument isn’t up tosnuff, you know. The

parts have to moveright, and the pads can’tleak. No air should getout of any part of thehorn that you don’twant it to get out of. So Itinker. I fix things.Although some prob-lems are too big, andyou have to take thehorn to someone whohas all the tools and thatstuff.”

Does that getexpensive?

“An overhaul for thesax might cost some-where around $700.That’ll last for maybethree or four years. Butyou always know yourhorn is in a state ofdecline. It’s never gettingany better.”

How much wasMcPherson’s horn tobegin with?

“Well, I have a vin-tage Selmer. And mostguys do play Selmer,even though there areother good horns on themarket. But Selmer iskind of like the Stradi-varius of the saxophone.

And I could probablysell my horn for $6500,for sure.”

Did McPhersonname his horn?

“No, no, no,” he saidslowly. “That’s for rock-

and-roll guys.”Where did he keep

it?“It’s in its case. In

the den. And usually,when I leave, I’m soparanoid about it, that

when I go someplace, I’llhide it. You know, I’llput it in an area of thehouse where it’s not realobvious. So if someonebreaks in, they’re apt notto see it.”

What about travel-ing with his sax?

“I have to take it onthe airplane. It’s too del-icate to put under theplane. And quite often,when you take itthrough security at theairport, it often becomesan object of interest.They want to look at it.And sometimes, theminute they go in there,I have to step forwardand say, ‘Okay, let me doit. I’ll pick the horn up;I’ll handle it; I’ll do any-thing you say; you canlook anywhere youwant.’ But I’m the onewho’s going to handle it.Because there’s so manydelicate moving parts.It’s like a piece of china.They don’t know, andthey might just grab it,and something mightget damaged.”

McPherson told mehe likes the horn he hasnow very much. Andwhen I went to see himplay at Dizzy’s down-town, I could hear why.

Dizzy’s, while we’reon the subject, is a dedi-cated, relatively smallconcert space on theedge of the Gaslamp —a high-ceilinged, wide-open warehouse withunfinished walls andportable (comfortable)chairs. They don’t servealcohol there — it’s allages, always — and noone who goes to hearjazz muddles the experi-ence by talking or read-ing or eating. Dizzy’s isabout the music, plainand simple.

And what music!McPherson’s quintet(which featured localtrumpet whiz GilbertCastellanos) smokedand cooked and workedit through, tune aftertune. Over 100 jazzenjoyers packed littleDizzy’s and clappedenthusiastically between

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Charles McPherson

songs and after all thesolos. McPherson’s toneon that old Selmer altoburst into the room, thesound impossibly full, asthough the notes hadbegun deep in his ownthroat and the horn wasjust an extended vocalapparatus. But McPher-son could play quietly,too, threading the bal-lads with a sound likesugar wind.

I asked McPhersonwhat kind of music helistens to.

“Certainly jazz,” hesaid. “Though not asmuch as I used to yearsago. But I’ll listen to jazzradio, you know, KSDS.And I will listen to clas-sical music quite a bit.Every now and then, I’lllisten to pop, too, andsee if there’s anythinginteresting, althoughthere isn’t very much.”

(I have to mention,contrary to what youmay have heard, thatbad sax isn’t better thanno sax at all. Soft jazz,“cheesy” listening, bub-ble-gum-Kenny G-type

pop, and especiallyMuzak all count on theunfortunate saxophoneto carry melodies andreplace vocal lines. It’salmost enough to dilutethis incredible

instrument’s esteemedpedigree.)

And what aboutthat pedigree? What sax-ophone players didMcPherson emulate andadmire?

“Most of the guys Iadmire aren’t here any-more. You know, likeCharlie Parker, LesterYoung, Sonny Stitt…Itend to like the bebopguys. Those are the guysI learned from, whowere quite strong as Iwas growing up. But Idon’t listen to as muchmusic as I used to,because I’m more intodoing it, rather than lis-tening to it.”

By “doing it,” didMcPherson mean notonly playing music butalso teaching it?

“Yes, I teach,” hesaid, “I have a few stu-dents. You know, mostlycollege guys. And I teachintermediate sax, oradvanced, but not somuch the basicsanymore.”

Did he have anyfemale students? (I was

envisioning a potentiallyinflammatory directionfor my questioning.)

“I had one. But shemoved to New York.”

So how come so fewwomen played thesaxophone?

“That’s a compli-cated question. It proba-bly has to do withsocialization and societyat large. Maybe littlegirls think they’re notsupposed to play, like it’sa man’s thing. Youknow, why aren’t morewomen carpenters? Youknow, they can be, andthere are some, but…”

So why were theremore African-Americansax players than Cau-casian ones?

“I don’t know ifthat’s the truth,”McPherson shot back,though he didn’t soundprovoked. “I mean,

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McPherson with student

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When you consid-ered all the great jazzinnovators, for everywhite musician (GerryMulligan and Stan Getzcome immediately tomind) there were at leastfive or ten black ones,right?

“That may be,”McPherson said. “But ifyou add up all the jazzplayers in America, thenI don’t know if it breaksdown like that. I thinkthere are at least asmany white folks play-ing jazz as black folks.But when you mentionthe innovators, I guessmaybe most of theinnovators were blackbecause the musicsprings from theAfrican-Americanculture.”

So then it might besafe to say that therewere more jazz artists ofAmerican descent thanany other nationality?

“Perhaps.” McPher-son sounded thoughtful.“But, you know, it’s sopervasive now. Forinstance, I can go toEurope, and there arejust thousands of Euro-pean players now. Imean, they teach jazz inthe schools over there.”

McPherson himselfhas taught saxophonefor decades. He led mas-ter classes at San DiegoState back in the ’80s.But now his teachingwas limited to a few stu-dents in his own home.Eventually (as you’llread later), I spoke toMcPherson’s best cur-rent student, IanTordella.

Saxophone seemedas if it must be a verydifficult instrument toplay. All that airrequired, and so on.Could McPherson stillblow a fine tune whenhe had a cold?

“Oh, you can dothat,” he said. “The diffi-culty of the saxophoneisn’t so much the energyof the air as it is the dex-terity of the fingers. Youknow, the coordination.It’s a finger game.”

What about the dif-ference between playinglive and recording?

“For me, playinglive, that atmosphereseems to produce morespontaneity. It producesmore of a relaxed atti-tude while you’re doing

what you do. And so,from the relaxed atti-tude, spontaneity ismore apt to happen.Recording is more of asterile situation. Youworry more about beingprecise, because it’s forposterity. That atmos-

phere is not necessarilythe best for extemporiz-ing. But there’s an art toit. Some people have theability, for whatever rea-son, to bring spontane-ity to their recordings,but that is not an easything.”

I asked the masterwhy he thought the sax-ophone had becomesuch a popular instru-ment. What was theallure?

“People, even laypeople, like the sound ofthat instrument. I’d say

there are more saxo-phone players than thereare players of any otherinstrument. And there’sa reason for that, aninteresting psychologicalreason. Certainly, thesound has got a lot to dowith it. I think the

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sound of the saxophoneis in some sort of waylikable to many people.And, believe it or not,the shape of it. The Slook. It seems thatwomen really like thesound of saxophone.They think it soundssexy. Quite often, whenyou look at a movie anda director wants to por-tray a sexy scene, thenyou’ll hear a saxophonein the background. Forwhatever reason, peoplethink that. Good or bad,whatever it means, onsome primordial level.Now these are just some

of the things I hear. Idon’t necessarily thinkall that.”

What do you think?“The reason I like

the saxophone isbecause, out of all theinstruments, it’s theclosest to the humanvoice. How it sounds,and also how the tone isproduced, what you dowith your throat andyour mouth. When youplay saxophone, it’s likeyou’re singing. You havean open throat, andyou’re thinking vowel-sounds, and, indeed, theinstrument is very

voicelike; it’s very closein timbre to the humanvoice. In fact, the guywho invented the saxo-phone — Adolphe Sax,a Belgian guy — fromwhat I understand, fromwhat I read about him,it was actually his intentto make a horn thatsounded like the humanvoice. And also to makea horn that sounded likethe string section in theorchestra, you know, theviolin, the viola, thecello. So for all the saxo-phones, there’s a corre-sponding string instru-ment as well. Like, the

soprano sax is a violin,the alto is like a viola,the tenor is like a cello,and the baritone istonally similar to astring bass. They over-lap. So you can listen toa sax quartet, and itsounds pretty damnnear to a string quartet.So there was some delib-eration on AdolpheSax’s part. To have stringqualities as well aswoodwind qualities andalso to have the projec-tion ability of brassinstruments as well.This guy was a genius.”

Adolphe Sax

(1814–1894) didn’tdevelop the first saxo-phone until 1842. It’sinteresting to note thatSax’s close friend, Hec-tor Berlioz, was a classi-cal composer, and thefirst uses for the saxo-phone were as a wood-wind instrument in clas-sical music settings. Butit wasn’t long before Saxhimself retooled mili-tary bands, replacingoboes, bassoons, andFrench horns with altoand tenor saxophones.

The saxophone wasenhanced over the nextfour decades, adding

notes in the lower andhigher registers, extend-ing the bell, and tweak-ing the technologiesbehind the pads andkeys. The saxophonecame to the UnitedStates in 1885 and con-tinued to be improvedupon and was usedmostly in orchestral andchamber music situa-tions by everyone fromRavel and Debussy toCopland and Puccini.But the saxophone hadalso found its way intoother musical veins,mostly in the AmericanSouth. By 1911, the sax-

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ophone was popularizedby Tom Brown’s saxo-phone sextet, whichplayed such tunes as“Bullfrog Blues” and“Chicken Walk.” Soonthereafter, Sidney Bechetrevolutionized how theinstrument was per-ceived and played.

In the 1940s, jazzsaxophonists — such asthe aforementionedParker, Mulligan, andGetz — began to gainpopularity. By the timeSelmer began makingsaxophones in the1950s, the instrumentwas firmly entrenchedin the musical main-stream, and especiallywithin the mainstreamof jazz.

The hallmark ofjazz music is improvisa-tion. Louis Armstrongonce said, “Jazz is musicthat’s never played thesame way once.” CouldMcPherson talk aboutimprovising? How didhe approach it? How didhe learn a theme, andput himself in the

moment, and let himselfloose, and personallyexpress?

“Usually, to impro-vise well,” he said, “youhave to master a lot oftheory. So, having donethat, having accrued thatkind of knowledge, it’s amatter of executing that.But once you’ve learnedsome of the academicsof what harmony is allabout, that’s not eventhe half of it. For peoplewho improvise, afteryou learn the rudiments,then it’s ‘What kind ofstory are you going totell?’ Then, personalitytakes over. Personality isthe thing that executeswhat you know. So itcomes down to whatkind of person you are,how well-rounded youare. If you’re going toportray love, then, willyou be able to do that byway of your medium, byway of your horn? Orjoy. Or ecstasy. Ordepression. Can youconvey that? Do youhave the dimension as a

performer? You have tobe a musical thespian.Can you portray deepsadness? And all thesethings come into play.And this is what makes agreat artist, as opposedto a great musician. Agreat musician can be agreat mechanic. A greatartist is one who mightnot be the greatestmechanic, but theirgreatness is how multi-dimensional they are inconveying all the humangradations of emotion.”

So it’s also a ques-tion of tone?

“Tone’s important,too,” McPherson agreed.“Treatment of tone. Forsaxophone players espe-cially, having your ownsound, your own distin-guishable, definitivesound is of utmostimportance.”

How did a playerachieve that?

“That’s a hard ques-tion.” McPherson trailedoff thoughtfully. “It’s avery natural thing. Youknow, it’s somethingthat has to come aboutin a natural way. At thesame time, I can’t saythat developing yourtone doesn’t involve anact of deliberation.Maybe the act of delib-eration would be toknow that that’s what’sto be desired. It’s likebeing a little kid inschool and learning towrite cursive. You’relooking at the teacher,and you’re trying to3

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Joe Marillo (left), Jimmy Cavallo (center) at the Apollo, 1956

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make your letters looklike her letters. But then,after a while, everybodyhas his own handwrit-ing. You’re creating yourown sound. It’s whatkind of sound you hearin your head. You know,what is your concept ofsound? Everybody hearsdifferently. We all have adifferent set of ideals.But personality has thelast say-so. That decideshow you do what youdo with what youknow.”

* * *

Joe Marillo started on

the saxophone relativelylate. “When I was 18 or19,” he told me. “Itmight have been destiny.Why is anyone drawn toanything?”

Joe Marillo’s accentis one hundred percentupstate New York. Buf-falo, to be exact. It playsthrough his vowels,unmistakable. “When Iwas ver-r-ry young” —Marillo drew his wordsalong distinctively andbeautifully — “it wasJimmy Dorsey. Thesweetness of his tone.And from there, it wasCharlie Parker. Listening

to him improvise andplay those intricatecompositions that hewrote. They were veryintriguing. Because itwasn’t the ordinary la-di-di, la-di-da, the sim-ple little melodies, youknow. So I don’t knowwhy that happened tome, why I was drawn tothe sax, but I was drawnto it very strongly byCharlie Parker.”

They call Joe Mar-illo “the Godfather ofJazz.” When I asked himhow he picked up such aname, he winced andtold me he didn’t knowwho said it, or whenexactly, or how thename stuck. “Oh, that’sjust show-biz stuff,” hesaid. “I don’t like theshow-biz side of jazz. Ijust want to play themusic, you know?”

Marillo got a saxo-phone himself “when Iwas about 19,” he said. “Igot a Selmer, a tenor sax,which at that time wasabout $500. I wish I’dhave bought ten of

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them, because they’reabout $5000 now. So Ibought a Selmer, startedplaying by ear, just fool-ing around. And mybrother-in-law owned abar in Niagara Falls,New York. And that’swhere I started, justplaying blues. Didn’t

know any tunes,couldn’t read music, butmy brother-in-lawowned the place, so I gotto play there every Fri-day and Saturday nightwith a drummer and apiano player. I was ahonker then, not a jazzplayer. I’d hit one note

for half an hour, and allthe girls would bescreaming and yelling.You know, the longeryou played on one note,the more they liked you.Too many notes: nogirls!”

Marillo also learnedto play a lot of notes.

How did that happen?“Now I have to tell

you this,” Marillo saidurgently, “and you haveto put it in the paper,because a miracle hap-pened to me. I went inthe Army, took my basictraining at Fort Dix, andlearned to shoot ‘the

awful gun,’ and I was onmy way to Korea. So Isaid, okay, I’m on myway to go kill peopleand maybe be killed, butI brought my mouth-piece with me, and onenight I went to the USObuilding, got a saxo-phone, and went and sat

in with these guys. Itwasn’t much, you know,we just played someMickey Mouse blues, notunes, but some guycomes up to me, aSergeant Shapiro, and hesays, ‘Hey, man. You playgood.’ And I didn’t knowwhat to say, because I

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knew I didn’t play good.I didn’t know how toplay anything. But if youbelieve in guardianangels…This SergeantShapiro says, ‘Do youplay in a band?’ And Itold him, no, I was goingto Korea. And he said,‘Would you like to be ina band?’ And I said,‘Yeah! I don’t want to gokill anybody. I don’twant to go to war.’ Andthe next thing I knew, Ihad my orders changed,and I was going toAlaska, and I was in the43rd Army band. Icouldn’t read, I couldn’timprovise, I couldn’tplay, but it was a mira-cle. This SergeantShapiro. Never forget hisname. I’m looking forhim on the Internet, orhis family, or his rela-tives, to let him knowwhat he did for me.”

Marillo was eventu-ally kicked out of theArmy band when theydiscovered that hecouldn’t read a singlenote of music. He wasdemoted to kitchenduty, where he “washeddishes and scrubbedfloors” for six months.But he “loved it,”because he never had tospend a single day of hislife fighting in a war.

After his tour in theArmy, Marillo decidedto study music with allhis heart. After all, it hadsaved his life. But it wastough in the late ’50sand early ’60s for ayoung music student tomake a living, so hekicked around for awhile, playing gigs hereand there and evenswinging on a trapezeand playing saxophoneupside down to make afew bucks. “I don’t haveany pictures of that,though,” Marillolaughed. “I wish I did.”

He met his firstwife, got married,moved to Philadelphia,and eventually attendedthe same school — theGranoff School ofMusic — where his idol,the saxophone greatJohn Coltrane, hadlearned to play a few

years before. After Gra-noff, Marillo could reada little, and improvise,and he stressed to meemphatically that, nomatter what else wasgoing on in his life, “Itwas always thesaxophone.”

From Philadelphia,Marillo got the call to goto Las Vegas, where hestarted a family, played abunch of gigs, and keptpracticing as much as hecould. Then, 30 yearsago, he visited SanDiego for the first time

and “fell in love.”“Here was another

miracle,” Marillo said.“I’m in San Diego, Idon’t know anybody,and right around thecorner in La Jolla there’sthis place called theAspen Public House. So

I went to this guy there,and I said, ‘How aboutwe put together someSunday afternoon jamsessions?’ And I don’teven know where thatidea came from. But wedid that, and we put ittogether, and the crowds

used to line up aroundthe corner every Sunday.So I thought this mightwork somewhere else,too, in a bigger room,maybe seven days aweek. So I went to theCatamaran, in PacificBeach, and in 1974 I

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talked the owner intogoing with jazz showssix nights a week. Wecalled it Society for thePreservation of Jazz. Gotin touch with someagents in New York, andI booked jazz for a yearand a half. And every-body came here. SonnyRollins, Sarah Vaughan,Ahmad Jamal. Out ofnowhere, with no expe-rience, we packed theplace.”

Rollins, Vaughan,Jamal, jazz gods all. Thejazz pantheon used totour to play here, inhumble San Diego?Where was that kind oflocal soul now? In 2006,did we still have a jazz

scene?“I don’t like the

words ‘good’ and ‘bad,’ ”Marillo equivocated.“But I have touse…No…I’m notgoing to use ‘good’ and‘bad.’ I would say thejazz scene in San Diegonow is very meager. Theonly real thing we haveis Dizzy’s.”

Not even Croce’s?“No, no, no. That’s

not real jazz. We’re talk-ing straight-aheadbebop jazz. Over there,it’s Latin jazz, and rockjazz, and this and that.From what I gather. Butit’s not a jazz club. It’s abar, where tourists go inand drink and make

noise. They don’t go inspecifically to hear jazzartists. Dizzy’s is theonly jazz club in town,period. It’s been there

now three or four years,it’s consistent, and theguy who runs it is agreat guy who books theright people. Besides the

Dizzy’s scene, you’ve gotsome great players herein town, like JamesMoody and CharlesMcPherson, and also

Gilbert Castellanos,who’s a brilliant youngtrumpet player. Castel-lanos plays all overtown, but Moody usu-

ally goes away on tour,and McPherson and Iget what gigs we can,but it isn’t like a realscene.”

(Let it be noted thatat the time this articlewas written, JamesMoody — two-timeGrammy nominee andlongtime soloist withDizzy Gillespie’s famedensembles, who, at 80years young, is easily SanDiego’s reigning seniorsaxophonist — wasaway in Tokyo touringwith 18-year-old[female!] Japanese saxo-phone prodigy SaoriYano.)

Marillo went on.“Aside from Dizzy’s, as I

say, there aren’t reallyjazz clubs. And there’s abig difference betweenplaying in a bar orsomeplace and playingin a jazz club. Peoplecome in, they’ll ask forsome silly tune, or theywon’t listen, or they’lltalk and make noise,and you just put yourthree hours in andhopefully somebody’slistening and you havefun.”

But surely we musthave the resources onhand to start up a jazzscene in this town?

“I don’t think so,”Marillo answered mat-ter-of-factly. “I’m alwayslooking for backers to

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“THERE’S A BIG

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN

PLAYING IN A BAR

OR SOMEPLACE

AND PLAYING

IN A JAZZ CLUB.”

start up some jam ses-sions again, but no one’sinto it anymore. Peopleare obviously in themusic game to makemoney, but jazz doesn’tmake money. Also, theclubs here don’t havehistory. There’s no rootshere for people whoown old clubs, who passthem on. Instead, theseplaces try jazz, but ifthey’re not makingmoney, then the jazz isout. Jazz is a secondthought. That’s the wayit works nowadays, espe-cially in San Diego. SanDiego’s never been a jazztown. There’s a lot ofrock bands. If jazz mademoney, we’d have jazzclubs.”

When I went andlistened to Joe Marillosaxing it up at BuonGiorno Ristorante inBonita, the small butdedicated crowd dancedand cheered and tappedtheir feet and bobbedtheir heads. The musiccreated a euphoric littleatmosphere. Yes, it tookup a lot of room to havea pianist, a guitarist, abassist, a drummer, asaxophonist, and asinger, and the soundwas just a notch or twotoo loud for quiet con-versation, but the moodin Buon Giorno wassuch that I wonderedwhy more places don’toffer live jazz moreoften.

And because so fewplaces offer paychecksfor jazz musicians, tomake a living nowadays,a player needs to have aday job. In other words,he has to take on stu-dents and give lessons.Marillo has been a pianoand saxophone teacherfor 40 years and esti-mates that he’s had over500 students in thattime. At present, he’scompiling a book thatoutlines his originalmethod for teachingjazz piano.

I asked Marillo togive me a quick primeron how to improvisereal jazz.

“To improvise,”Marillo began, “first you

have to learn the saxo-phone, where the notesare. Then you have tolearn scales, all the vari-ous and sundry scales.Then you learn thechords that are on thescales, and then youhave to memorize the

chords and scales. Thenyou learn the melodiesof different tunes. Nowyou could ‘ornament’probably a lot fasterthan you could impro-vise on the chords. Theyalso call that ‘faking it.’Where you just learn the

melody and play littlenotes around themelody, and it soundslike you’re improvising.I used to do that foryears, before I learned totake it to the next level.Where you learn thechords and you learn

the scales, and you cre-ate melodies on thespot, other than whatyou’re reading. Somepeople are more tal-ented at doing that thanothers. Then, of course,being in the momentwith the feeling and the

type of rhythm that youplay…The rhythm andfeeling are more impor-tant than the notes,really, although thenotes have to be right,otherwise you soundwrong. So there’s a lot ofaspects to it.”

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Marillo practices hisown chords and scaleswhenever he can, hoursa day, at home, but hesays he doesn’t take careof his horn the way heshould. Today, he plays aYamaha tenor sax, but,he acknowledged sheep-ishly, “I’m not a good

caretaker of my saxo-phone, I have to admit.”But boy, can he play thething. At Buon Giorno,on that night I saw himsoloing with his band,not only was Marillo’sfingerwork fast and pre-cise, but I was struckmost by his beautiful,

bright tone. On the onehand, it sounded sweet,smooth, and bell-likeclear, and at the sametime it was ribald,rowdy, and full to burst-ing with emotion.

I asked Marillo if hewas superstitious abouthis sax, and he answeredme without hesitation.“I’m not superstitiousabout anything. Realityis in the moment, andthere’s only now-time.When you improvise,you’re in now-time, youcan’t go back and playyour solo over again,and you don’t knowwhat’s going to comeout ahead of time. And Itry to live my life in themoment as much aspossible, without tryingto predict or worry thatsomething will happen.There’s only themoment we’re in right

now, and that’s all.”

* * *

Ferran Prat, 35, who isoriginally fromBarcelona, began takinglessons with Joe Marilloin August 2005. The saxwas always a fascinationfor Prat, but he neverplayed before because ofhis busy career as alicensing executive for abiotech company. Now,after his late start andjust a few months ofpractice, Prat wasMarillo’s best student. Infact, Marillo told mePrat was “the best stu-dent I’ve ever had inover 40 years ofteaching.”

“I love jazz,” Pratsaid in his thick Cat-alonian accent. “And thesaxophone is the king ofthe instruments in jazz.It’s the most flexible andthe sexiest ofinstruments.”

Did he buy his ownsax?

“First I bought asaxophone on eBay,”

Prat said. “But it turnedout to be a piece of crap.So Joe found anotherone for me, a Yamaha,and it works great.”

Is it a tenor sax?“It’s a tenor, yes,”

Prat said, and thenjoked, “Real men playtenor.”

Marillo originallycharged Prat $20 forhalf-hour lessons, butPrat enjoyed the experi-ence so much that hestarted giving Marillo$30. “He’s a greatteacher,” Prat said. “AndI get so much pleasureout of learning fromhim, that I felt like I wascheating him, so I gavehim more money.”

Prat has friendswho play trumpet andbass, and he told me hisgoal is to be able to jamwith them someday.“But right now I’m notgood enough,” he said.

And what were thehurdles and difficultiesto becoming a good sax-ophone player?

“The thing that’s

hard,” Prat said, “iswhen you step out ofthe framework. Whenyou know the song andyou have the chords, it’srelatively easy. You knowthe rules of what scalesyou can play, and youknow the sequences.The problem is whenyou don’t have any clearstructure. Then youhave to be able to thinkmusically and play byear.”

Was Joe Marillo agood teacher?

“If I had gone withany other teacher, espe-cially since I didn’t startplaying until I was 35, Idon’t know if I wouldhave even continued.What Joe did was startme on improvising fromday one, or maybe notday one, but month one,let’s say, and he took mestraight into what thereal rules are. I’ve readbooks, and I’ve talked toother people, and theyjust get lost in the scalesand technicalities. ButJoe just says, look, here’sa chord progression, andthis is a scale that worksover that progression,every time. When youhear this, you play this.He goes right to thepoint. He makes it sosimple. And the fact thatyou can play somethingthat sounds really goodfrom the very beginningjust motivates youtremendously.”

* * *

Charles McPherson’sbest student right now isIan Tordella, 27. A saxo-phonist for 13 years,Tordella has played pro-fessionally since 2000.

What did it mean toplay saxophone profes-sionally in San Diego in2006?

“Right now, I have atrio and a quartet,”Tordella said, “and wedo a lot of holiday par-ties and corporateevents. We’ll also playclubs in the Gaslamp,like Dizzy’s and Croce’s.But, for musicians thesedays, you have to beready to play every-where, all types of4

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music. You have to playfor big bands, for popgroups, at the jazz clubs.Basically, you play any-where and anything thatthey want you to so youcan eat.”

Compared to JoeMarillo, Ian Tordellapainted a picture of aslightly more vibrantjazz scene in San Diego.Along with Dizzy’s andCroce’s, Tordella men-tioned GilbertCastellanos’s Tuesdayjam sessions at the OnyxRoom downtown. Healso sounded enthusias-tic talking about RosieO’Grady’s pub onAdams Avenue. “Theydo an old-style jam atRosie’s on Tuesdays,”Tordella said. “You showup with your horn oryour trumpet, and theyget some singers too,and then you jam withthe rhythm sectionthat’s there. It’s prettycool.” Hot Monkey LoveCafe in the College Areaalso features a jazzrhythm section onThursdays where musi-cians can show up andjam together, old-school-jazz style.

I also found men-tion in the papers andon the Internet ofenough jazz happeningsin town to give theimpression of at least asomewhat lively localunderground musicscene. There’s Jazz in thePark every Wednesdayevening at the San DiegoMuseum of Art. There’sthe America’s FinestCity Dixieland JazzSociety, which plays fes-tivals, holds camps andworkshops, and playsthe third Sunday ofevery month at the ElCajon Elks Lodge. A fewother nightclubs, such asthe Grant Grill andPatrick’s II, also periodi-cally advertise jazz acts.

Tordella, who hashaunted many of thesevenues over the pastfew years, plays alto andtenor sax and also theflute. He owns fivesaxes, a couple of flutesand clarinets, and apiano. “More instru-

ments than I need,” hesaid. But his favoritehorn is his vintage 1948Selmer tenor sax, whichhe bought used andhad to have restored.Sax restorations areundertaken by true spe-cialists who basicallyoverhaul a horn until itlooks and sounds likenew. Tordella sent hisSelmer to a guy inNorth Carolina for amonth and paid over$1000 to get a hornthat’s basically the sameas the ones played byJohn Coltrane andHank Mobley on jazzalbums in the 1950s.

I was curious aboutTordella’s lessons withCharles McPherson.They weren’t really les-sons, were they? Whatwith Tordella being aprofessional player andall.…

“Not lessons somuch in the sense oflearning the fundamen-tals of the instrument,”Tordella conceded. “ButCharles McPherson’sbeen playing profession-ally for about 50 years,and he has some goodstuff to say. So I’ve beenvisiting him regularlyfor a little over a yearnow.”

And what didTordella pay to play withthe master?

“I think he usuallycharges about $80 for anhour to two hours. He’sreal generous with histime. But of course hegives me a reduced rateby now, I guess becausehe kind of likes playing

with me too.”And what was a typ-

ical McPherson/Tordellajam session like?

“We usually playthrough jazz tunes withCD accompaniment.And then he helps mecritique my improvisa-tion, pointing out spotsin the tune that I couldplay better, or things Imight do differently.Sometimes we recordthe stuff we play, andthen we listen to ittogether.”

Could Tordella giveme a specific example ofa McPherson critique?

“Mostly, Charlesgives me new ways tothink about chords andharmonic structure. It’skind of an etherealthing. It’s well beyondthe notes that fit in cer-tain places. It’s moreabout phrasing, I guess,and how you’re makingyour lines. Ideally, youwant the syntax of yourimprovisation to be justright. You want your

solos to make sense, soyou’re not just ramblingon.”

Which may begin toexplain that strange sax-ophonist-enunciationthing I mentioned ear-lier, about how all thegents (and, presumably,ladies) who play thisinstrument seem tospeak so clearly and dis-tinctively. Tordella’swords especially werefully articulated, everysingle one of them. Heeven laughed with akind of precision, pro-nouncing each chuckle:ha ha ha heh heh.

“I’m starting towrite my own musicnow,” Tordella said.“And I’d like to developmy writing more andeventually play my ownmusic and start touringwith my own band. Ormaybe get picked up bysomeone else’s band andstart touring with them.That would be good,too.” ■

—Geoff Bouvier

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