JAZZ / DIRK SUTRO : Joe Pass, ‘King’ of Jazz Guitar, Back From Tour

Always the humble artist, guitarist Joe Pass prefers to let his fingers, not his mouth, do most of the talking.

Pass may be the greatest living jazz guitarist. He’s certainly the king of solo jazz guitar; few can match his technique and musical sensibilities, the way he puts bass lines, chords and melodies together on one instrument.

Just back from a mini-tour of New York, Boston, Chicago and Minneapolis with Danish bassist Niels-Henning Orsted Pederson, Pass opened at Elario’s Wednesday night. He’s got two new albums on the way: a collection of ballads and standards with Andre Previn scheduled for fall release and a pure straight-ahead album in a quintet setting, which should be out sooner.

In January, he played The Blue Note in Tokyo, but in typical Pass fashion, he downplays the reception he received. Many of his peers have been known to rave about the heroic welcome jazz masters get outside the United States.

“Japan is like America, except maybe a little more into the music scene. It’s not as great as people make it sound, or as bad. It’s OK.”

In San Diego, Pass will be backed by locals Mike Wofford on piano, Jim Plank on drums and Bob Magnusson on bass. Pass and Wofford hung out together in Los Angeles in the early ‘60s and even recorded a live album together, as well as backing Sarah Vaughan.

As a hobby, Pass occasionally records with friend and electric accordion player Tommy Gumina for Gumina’s Polytone label. Gumina, an electronics wizard, does special things to Pass’s guitar to make the sound super clean. A copy of their self-produced album is available for $11 from Polytone, 6865 Vineland Ave., North Hollywood.

Pass will be at Elario’s through April 30.

Out of the Coltrane school of tenor sax comes San Diegan Steve Feierabend, featured this weekend at Diego’s Loft in Pacific Beach in a band also including guitarist Peter Sprague.

“People tell me I have a Coltrane-like sound, but I don’t always like it when they say that,” Feierabend said. “I think I have my own sound, though it may be based on Coltrane. What I like about him is the way his spirituality comes through in his music. That’s what music is about to me, expressing something emotional, spiritual.”

Feierabend (“Fire-ah-bend,” emphasis on the second syllable) feels his roots are deep in jazz’s mainstream, especially in the playing of such important post-bebop sax men as Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter and Dexter Gordon. More than half his live repertoire usually consists of his own compositions. He’s searching for new rhythmic and harmonic variations on ideas pioneered by Coltrane and others.

Besides the Diego’s gig tonight through Saturday night, Feieraband plays Wednesdays from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. during April and May at Croce’s in downtown San Diego and Mondays from 8 p.m. to midnight in May at Croce’s with his quartet.

In the search for a sizzling jazz combination to heat up the weekend scene at the Salmon House in Quivira Basin near Mission Bay, tenor sax man Gary Lefebvre joins the Barry Farrar Trio this Saturday night. Lefebvre is an under-appreciated local asset who has played with names like Terry Gibbs, Shorty Rogers, Red Norvo, Stan Kenton, Harry James, Chet Baker and Nelson Riddle.

Not long ago, his personal artistic search took him to Europe, where he hoped to become an overnight sensation. A highlight of his two-month stay was a tour with sax man Illinois Jacquet’s big band. But he found the scene not quite as easy to crack as it’s purported to be, and left after two months, settling again in San Diego, where he grew up.

LeFebvre has recorded two albums as a leader. A 1983 effort is nearly impossible to come by, but he said the Tower Records on Sports Arena Boulevard still carries 1985’s “Another Time, Another Place,” a self-produced project containing seven of his own songs.

These days, Lefebvre feels drawn to the big band format, especially arrangements by big band master Bill Holman. He’s considering starting his own big band in the months ahead.

SHORT RIFFS: San Diego State University’s Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of Bill Yeager, is one of several acts featured April 23, 7 p.m., at Hepner Hall on campus as part of the four-day Creative Arts Showcase’s closing night. Tickets are $10. Information: 594-1696. . . . The Mellotones will play all Ellington material at the April 25 “Jazz Live” concert presented by KSDS-FM (88.3) at San Diego City College. It’s a tribute for Ellington’s birthday. Music starts at 8 p.m. in the City College theater on C Street. . . . Peter Sprague plays this Saturday at the downtown Artwalk art festival at 3 p.m. from a stage on 9th Avenue between Broadway and F; Hollis Gentry’s Neon appears at 5 p.m. Sunday.