Shoemake Taking Up a New Project : Vibist, who performs in Huntington Beach tonight, is working on a new album with a quintet and a big band.

It took vibist/improvisation teacher Charlie Shoemake a while to settle in when he and his wife Sandi packed up and moved from their Sherman Oaks home to the sea-meets-the-pines climes of Cambria, on the coast in San Luis Obispo County.

“The first few months up here we didn’t do too much besides observe the beauty of the area and feel nervous, waiting for our home to sell, which it just did,” he said, obviously relieved.

Shoemake, 53, said he moved for a variety of reasons, the major ones being “I wanted to change the pace of my teaching and to focus more on my own music.”

That he’s done. “I teach here, but I’m not teaching six people a day. It’s more like one. So that gives me a lot more free time for my own work.”

To that end, Shoemake--who appears tonight and Saturday with bassist Luther Hughes’ band at the El Matador in Huntington Beach and with his own quartet Sunday at Le Cafe in Sherman Oaks--is deep into a new project.

“I’m composing music now for a new album I plan to record early next year with two groups, one a quintet, the other a big band led by Bill Holman,” he said. “The selections for the small group will be originals while Bill will write arrangements of standards and jazz classics for the big band, on which Sandi will sing on half of the material.” Shoemake, whose most recent release is “Stand Up Guys” (CMG), said he plans to use the big band for clinics at college campuses.

Shoemake has also been asked by Warren Balfour, head of the music department at San Luis Obispo’s Cuesta Junior College, to teach a class in improvisation at the school. “I like that a lot because it’s a challenge, yet it’s not so time-consuming that it will take away from my own music.”

This weekend, Shoemake, as is his bent, will play originals, standards and jazz works by such neglected giants as pianist Sonny Clark and saxophonist Hank Mobley. “It’s a mixture of the music by the people I learned from,” he said, referring to his having transcribed the solos of such greats as Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, Mobley and Clark.

The latter, known for his classic late-’50s “Cool Struttin’ ” (Blue Note) album, is a particular Shoemake favorite. “Of the guys I love, Sonny got the least reward for his talent because he died (of a drug overdose) so young, in 1963 at the age of 31.”

Mintzer Joins Yellowjackets: Saxophonist Bob Mintzer, known for his big-band writing and for his multi-reed work with the late Jaco Pastorius and with pianist Don Grolnick, has replaced Mark Russo as the saxophonist with the jazz/fusion band, the Yellowjackets.

“I thought it was time for me to work with a small group,” Mintzer told Billboard’s Jeff Levenson.

Mintzer was in Los Angeles last week, recording the Yellowjackets latest, and still untitled, album, which is due to be released on the GRP label in the spring. In December, he will travel to Japan with the band, which features Angelenos Russell Ferrante (keyboards), Jimmy Haslip (bass) and William Kennedy (drums).

As to why Russo, who had been with the group since 1985, left, Don Lucoff of D. L. Media, who handles publicity for the group, said, “There was no argument or difference of opinions. Mark wanted to further his association with Kenny Loggins, with whom he has also been playing for several years, and to expand his studio career.”

Russo, Mintzer, Yellowjacket band members and GRP executives were unavailable for comment.

Garson Quartet Celebrates Re-Opening: Pianist Mike Garson’s quartet plays a concert Sunday at 3 p.m. in celebration of the re-opening of a legendary landmark--the former Uniroyal Tire Factory in the City of Commerce, now known as the Citadel, a complex of offices, restaurants and hotels. The concert, presented by the Da Camera Society’s Chamber Music in Historic Sites series, spotlights the contemporary keyboardist, known for his work with David Bowie and the group Free Flight, and costs $26. Information: (213) 747-9085.