Old Music Brings Veteran New Acclaim for Sax Work

Encinitas saxophonist Anthony Ortega, 62, has recorded eight albums over his career. The last was the 1978 “Rain Dance,” mostly original music featuring Ortega on bass clarinet, tenor and alto saxes and flute, and his wife, Mona Orbeck Ortega, on vibes. But perhaps the most original were “New Dance” in 1967 and “Permutations” in 1968.

On the cover of “New Dance,” Ortega looks the part of the young hipster, hair shorn blunt, unfashionably short for the dawn of the psychedelic age, eyes concealed behind large, dark glasses. The music lives up to Ortega’s film noir image.

Over spare drums and bass that pulse through unpredictable changes, Ortega unleashes a brooding storm of alto sax: high trills and dissonant jungle bird squawks, honeyed passages that float over the rhythm section and spare, up-tempo lines that bristle with atonal angst.

Now, Ortega’s career is picking up new steam due to the re-release last month of “New Dance” and part of “Permutations” together on a new CD from the Swiss Hat Hut Records label.

In response to European interest in the CD, Ortega has been booked to play the Sorgue Jazz Festival in France in June and hopes also to make a series of European club appearances.

The CD is also gaining new respect for Ortega at home, where his talents have been relegated mostly to backing roles in a variety of local bands. Ortega is a quiet man who seldom expresses the frustrations of scrambling for quality dates in San Diego County, even though his recordings have won critical praise and he has played with Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Errol Garner, Art Farmer, Lionel Hampton, Sonny Stitt, Dinah Washington, Billy Taylor, Herbie Mann, Maynard Ferguson, Blue Mitchell and Gerald Wilson.

But he let on during an interview at his modest Encinitas home last week that his date at 8 o’clock this Saturday night at the U.S. Grant Hotel downtown is a belated personal victory of sorts.

“We’ve been living here for 15 or 16 years, and this is the first time, with all these records I’ve made, that I’m going to play as a leader in downtown San Diego.”

Ortega will also appear at 8 p.m. April 20 at All That Jazz in Rancho Bernardo.

For both dates, he’ll resurrect a few tunes from “New Dance,” including the ballad “Tis Autumn.”

The music on the CD doesn’t sound all that revolutionary by today’s standards, but in 1967 and 1968, it was on the cutting edge. The tunes “New Dance I + II” and “Sentimentalize,” for example, were entirely improvised around chord changes Ortega jotted down during the session--there were no scripted melodies at all.

“I just got tired of playing in the same vein,” Ortega explained. “I wanted to find a way to weave together different patterns around a basic foundation but in my own way.”

The music represents some of the most inspired playing of Ortega’s career, but he returned to a more straight-ahead approach for subsequent recordings.

“I never had any luck with those. ‘New Dance’ and ‘Permutations’ weren’t going over. They weren’t selling. After that I calmed down into a more conventional sound.”

Ortega’s jazz career was launched from 1951 to 1953 with vibraphonist Hampton’s band. After a European tour with the band, he met and married wife Mona in Norway in 1954. His first albums as a leader were recorded in Norway in 1954, and his first U.S. release was the 1955 “A Man and His Horns,” engineered by legendary jazz producer Rudy Van Gelder. The album was among the first jazz sessions to make extensive use of over dubbing, with Ortega handling several horn parts himself.

Ortega’s studio career caught fire in New York City during the late 1950s, and he played on several sessions a year. In Tahoe from 1962 to 1965, Ortega worked in show bands before returning to Los Angeles, where he kept busy with a variety of work. He recorded several times with trumpeter and band leader Wilson, played an Eskimo on an episode of “I Love Lucy” and appeared as a background jazzman in several movies including “Change of Habit,” starring Elvis Presley.

After he moved to Encinitas in 1975, his studio work continued for a few years, including the sax parts he improvised in 1978 for the sound track of the movie “An Unmarried Woman.” But the acclaim accorded him never equalled his early promise.

“It’s a funny thing,” he mused. “I’ve always been kind of on the side.”

“He’s soft-spoken,” Mona said. “He’s going to be discovered just when he’s retired,” she added, joking.

Ortega hopes the revival of his career will lead to a new recording session, possibly with Hat Hut. Even if it doesn’t, he’ll stick with his music. That decision was made long ago.

“At one point, I went to Anthony’s Real Estate school,” Ortega said. “But, after I got in, it was very difficult. . . .”

“That was never in your heart anyway,” his wife said, completing the thought.

Baritone saxman and concert promoter Ira B. Liss beat out Rob Hagey and the San Diego Jazz Society for the job of producing Carlsbad’s summer outdoor jazz series. The program of Friday evening concerts will expand to 12 dates from nine, beginning June 7 with a program of Ellington music at Calavera Hills Park featuring The Mellotones.

The weekly series will include three Fridays at four parks: Calavera Hills, Aviara Hills, Stagecoach and Magee. Among the highlights are the inclusion of saxophonist Mark Lessman as the only light jazz act (June 21, Calavera Hills) and a rare San Diego County performance by alto saxman Charles McPherson (July 19, Stagecoach).

“I’m presenting local groups that don’t get much attention,” Liss said. “Promoters promote national acts and leave the local guys on the side to struggle on their own. I think of myself as the voice of local jazz musicians. I think the local jazz musician is at least as good as any national acts that come through here.” With 12 dates all featuring excellent talent, Carlsbad will be getting a lot of bang for its 10,000-buck budget.

RIFFS: Shakuhachi flute master Kazu Matsui headlines this Sunday’s “Champagne Jazz” concert at the Culberton Winery in Temecula. . . .

L.A. pianist Frank Collett will play with bassist Bob Magnusson at the Horton Grand Hotel Friday and Saturday nights at 8:30. . . .

Pianist Harry Pickens will give a lecture-concert on the music of Thelonious Monk this Thursday night from 7 to 9 at the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library in La Jolla.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

The King to Play in Tijuana

Since the 1950s, Tito Puente has spread the spice of Latin rhythms through jazz via associations with Cal Tjader, Woody Herman and others, while maintaining a prodigious solo career that has earned the master percussionist the title “El Rey” --The King. Hot on the heels of the release last month of his 100th album, “Out of This World,” Puente appears this Thursday night at 8 at the El Torito Pub in Tijuana, 643 Revolucion Ave.