Jazz Fans on List? Look No Further : Music: San Diego is home to some top jazz talent, and a large selection of quality music is available for holiday gifts.

Want to give the gift of jazz to your favorite music buff?

You can walk the aisles of your major chain music store and fill your basket with the obvious big-name albums.

Or you can take another approach: Why not turn your musical friend onto one or two of the many recordings made by San Diego musicians?

San Diego’s jazz scene is so low-key, most people aren’t aware how much top talent is here. Yet those who follow it can vouch for the large quantity of recorded music--excellent music--available.

“I’d say there are at least 3 dozen albums,” said Paul Lavoie, host of “San Diego Spotlight,” the Sunday night local jazz program on KIFM (98.1). Lavoie’s tastes run toward lighter, commercial jazz, but there are even more albums available by mainstream players.

Jude Hibler, publisher of The Jazz Link, a monthly San Diego jazz journal, came up with a list of 77 musicians who have either recorded their own albums or played on sessions with other musicians.

With the recent migration to San Diego by such top jazz players as sax man James Moody and guitarists Mundell Lowe and Barney Kessel, the list of recorded local talent grew even more impressive.

The Tower Records on Sports

Arena Boulevard is the place most often mentioned by local musicians as a source of their recorded music. Folk Arts Rare Records on Adams Avenue in San Diego stocks several hard-to-find albums by local players.

Here, then, are some jazzy picks for your Christmas shopping list:

- No lover of jazz saxophonists dating back to Lester Young, Charlie Parker or Coleman Hawkins should be without an album by Moody. His newest is titled “Sweet and Lovely.”

Moody, 64, is a survivor. He’s played with the greats, and lived to assimilate their influences. Today, Moody’s mood is buoyant, his playing at times melodic, witty, fiery. Old pal Dizzy Gillespie joins him for two tunes on the new album.

- Another survivor is La Jolla saxophonist Charles McPherson, a sax master in his own right who has made several albums. Most recently, he played Parker’s sax parts on the sound track for “Bird,” the movie about the life of Parker.

- Mike Wofford is one of San Diego’s top jazz pianists. He is featured on Ella Fitzgerald’s new album, due for release early next year, and he’s done a number of notable projects of his own. One of his most critically acclaimed sessions is this year’s “Gerald’s People,” on which Wofford tackles the music of veteran composer, band leader and trumpeter Gerald Wilson, with Rufus Reid on bass and Carl Burnett on drums.

- Bassist Bob Magnusson, who often plays with Wofford, has several albums of his own, including the 3-year-old “Song for Janet Lee” with Hubert Laws, Bobby Shew, Peter Sprague and Billy Mintz, and earlier collaborations with such talents as Bill Mays, John Guerin and Hubert Laws.

- Saxophonists Joe Marillo and Tony Ortega have both recorded albums over the years. Ortega’s work ranges from the avant garde 1965 “Revelation” to the more mainstream 1979 “Rain Dance,” including Ortega’s wife Mona Orbeck on vibes. Neither has recorded recently, but a little sleuthing is bound to turn up the existing albums.

- Paul Sundfor, the local alto sax man, is revered by local players. He has no albums as a leader, but he played on Wofford’s 1987 “Funkallero” and also joins bassist Andy Simpkins on an album due in January.

- Guitarist Peter Sprague has recorded several albums; one of the most satisfying was last year’s “Na Pali Coast,” featuring Sprague with the fine Los Angeles flutist Steve Kujala. Sprague and Kujala hooked up to create lilting, tropical melodies that do justice to the album’s title, a reference to an area in Hawaii.

- A pair of San Diego flutists also issued albums last year. Lori Bell’s “Take Me To Brazil,” a collaboration with pianist Dave Mackay, finds the pair putting their energy into melodic music, often anchored by Latin rhythms. Holly Hofmann recorded “Take Note” with Wofford on piano, Sherman Ferguson on drums and Bob Magnusson on bass.

- In the realm of bluesy jazz are Jeannie and Jimmy Cheatham, whose 1989 album “Back to the ‘Hood,” recorded with their Sweet Baby Blues Band, received raves from jazz critics across the country.

- San Diego’s avant-garde jazz scene is nearly invisible, but it does exist. Perhaps the most prolific of the cutting-edge local players is pianist Glenn Horiuchi, who, in the space of less than three years, has recorded three fine albums for the tiny Bay Area-based Asian Improv label.

Horiuchi brings the frenetic energy of pianist Cecil Taylor to his roots in traditional Chinese music.

- Also in the realm of cutting-edge jazz is the technically awesome San Diego pianist Harry Pickens, who can be heard on several Blue Note albums with the group Out of the Blue.

- At the other end of the spectrum are several San Diego artists who have made it big with a lighter, commercial radio-oriented brand of jazz.

One of the most impressive debuts was this year’s “Architects of Change,” by composer and keyboard wiz Spencer Nilsen. Instead of the soporific elevator jazz that often gets commercial play, Nilsen has built a complex wall of sound anchored by relentless pulsing rhythms over which he lays his powerful, synthesized melody lines.

- Checkfield, a studio duo consisting of John Archer and Ron Satterfield (Archer “discovered” Nilsen) came out with “Through the Lens” last year, the band’s third album. It doesn’t have as much raw spunk as Nilsen’s album, but as polished, multitracked studio projects go, this one is state of the art.

Other local light jazz leaders are Neon, featuring Hollis Gentry, and Fattburger. Albums by both bands this year sold well and made it onto radio play lists across the country. The Mark Lessman Band and Flight 7 also released light jazz albums in 1989.

San Diego also has its share of golden era jazz men, players with experience dating back to the big band days.

Band leader Bob Crosby lives in La Jolla. Though he didn’t play an instrument or read or write music, Crosby fronted a group of top musicians who defected from leader Ben Pollack in the ‘30s. With Crosby, they recorded several albums in the ‘30s and ‘40s.

Crosby bassist Bob Haggart, of La Costa, has made several albums with trumpeter Yank Lawson in The World’s Greatest Jazz Band. They are available by mail (Audiophile Records, 1206 Decatur St., New Orleans 70116).

During the years when Haggart was working with Crosby, San Diego trumpeter John Best was playing and recording with the big bands of Les Brown, Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller and others, and many of these albums can still be found.

Several other names belong on this list, though there isn’t room to discuss their work in detail: singer Frankie Laine, saxophonist Gary Lefebvre, singer Kevyn Lettau (with Sergio Mendes and Sprague), guitarist (and Padre pitcher) Eric Show, the South Market Street Band (Dixieland; buy their tapes at live dates); Art Resnick; Nelson Riddle Jr.; the San Diego State University Jazz Ensemble; clarinetist Bobby Gordon, Fro Brigham and many others.