Taking the A Train to Santa Barbara Festival Whalum Benefit Due Sunday in Pasadena

For the first time in more than five years, Santa Barbara has a jazz festival.

Headlined by saxophonist Stan Getz, the Santa Barbara International Jazz Festival kicks off tonight and runs through Saturday, with performances--by such name artists as Getz, pianist David Benoit and conga drummer Poncho Sanchez, and such Santa Barbara-area musicians as pianist Debbie Denke and flutist Bob Ledner--in venues all over town.

“A lot of people think I’m totally crazy to try and pull off a festival here, but I thought it could be done if it emphasized that Santa Barbara is a beautiful place to go,” said Jack Butefish, festival director.

“I wanted to create an atmosphere where jazz is happening all over town, including bands in the streets Friday and Saturday, on a big stage in front of City Hall, in the nightclubs and the concert halls,” said Butefish.

Among the special events will be the Amtrak Jazz Train, which will carry festival-goers--entertained by a jazz trio en route--from Los Angeles’ Union Station to Santa Barbara Friday (a return trip is scheduled for Sunday), and a jazz club crawl, led by noted KKGO-FM disc jockey Chuck Niles, which will take place after Getz’s Saturday evening concert.

Information: (800) 321-3378 or (805) 962-0800.

The Boys Club of Pasadena and the MacKenzie-Scott Branch Women’s Assn. will share the proceeds from the Kirk Whalum Benefit Jazz Concert, scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. Sunday at Pasadena City College’s Sexton Auditorium. In addition to jazz/funk saxophonist Whalum, the bill includes singer Diane Reeves, saxmen Gerald Albright and George Howard and an all-star band. Information: (213) 480-3232 or (714) 740-2000.

Though Corky Hale is perhaps best known as a jazz harpist, talk to her for a few minutes and she will let you know she wears a few other musical hats as well. “When I worked at the Cocoanut Grove in the ‘50s, I played harp with the orchestra, flute on the Latin numbers, intermission piano and sang with the big band,” she said.

Some of her biggest thrills have been as a pianist. “I’ve played piano for everybody,” she quipped. Among the singers she has accompanied are Barbra Streisand and Billie Holiday, the latter in a two-week stint at Jazz City, the popular room at Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue that spotlighted jazz greats from Art Blakey to Shelly Manne and Conte Candoli in the ‘50s.

Hale can be heard Thursdays in October at Tom Rolla’s Gardenia Club in Hollywood, backing some of her favorite songwriters--Hal David (tonight), Johnny Mandel, Alan Bergman and the team of Lieber and Stoller. (Mike Stoller also happens to be Hale’s husband.)

“I’ll have each of the writers do a couple of their songs, and then I’ll do one,” she said. Bassist Herb Mickman and drummer Gene Estes will also be on hand.

Another facet of the show will find Hale doing tunes that she worked on with such stars as Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. “I’ll talk about the tunes, and about how I got to do them. I’ve done a lot crazy things, and I hope to put some of these happenings in my show,” she joked.

***** “Messages” (Prestige), from the marvelous-yet-underrecognized saxophonist Hank Mobley, is the epitome of a hard-bop recording. This superb 1956 two-record set (on a single CD) offers a blend of bop classics--”Bouncing With Bud,” “52nd Street Theme”--along with torchy ballads and crackling medium and up-tempos, all infused with the bluesy tinge that marked the hard-bop genre. Mobley, a master improviser who could weave art and funk into sumptuous, melodic cloths, is assisted by trumpet greats Kenny Dorham (who was seen a bit in the recently re-released “Dangerous Liaisons 1960”), pianists Barry Harris and Walter Bishop, bassist Doug Watkins and drummer Art Taylor. This is music that never stops cooking.

Records are rated from one to five stars: ***** means a swinging must-have for the jazz lover; * means save your pennies, Benny.