SOUNDS AROUND TOWN : Triple Talent : To appreciate jazzman Tom Buckner’s breadth, you have to catch him in several settings.

Contrary to popular belief, jazz doesn’t always unfold in smoky dives and urban squalor. Tom Buckner, Ventura saxophonist on the rise, knows this.

Last week at the beachside Sea Cove in Santa Barbara, the waves lapped at the shore, the moon shone overhead and the Latin-jazz band Pelin teased along a sumptuous samba rhythm on bandleader Luis Munoz’s “Topazio.” Buckner eased into a soprano sax solo, at first with soft caressing long notes and then rapid, heated phrases.

Considering the soaring saxophone tone, the semitropical groove and the idyllic conditions, it made for a postcard-perfect picture of the California jazz scene. It’s a scene that Buckner both works in and feels a bit at odds with.

For Buckner, Pelin is one of many musical incarnations. For further evidence of Buckner’s work, proceed to the Grant Geissman concert at the Presidio Chapel in Santa Barbara on Sept. 20. Geissman’s brightest moment of fame was with his guitar solo on the fluke Chuck Mangione hit, “Feels So Good.” He has since parlayed that attention--and the general “feelgood” philosophy--into a solo career specializing in an amiable brand of pop-jazz.

Buckner certainly appreciates nice work when he can get it. Regarding the Geissman job, he said, laughing: “I’m a happy camper.”

But to appreciate Buckner’s breadth, you’d have to catch him in several different settings: playing straight-ahead jazz in Pelin, in a fusion-ish “happy jazz” context and in a hard-edged “blowing session” such as the one with Ventura expatriate Dave Binney at Santa Barbara’s Joseppi’s a few weeks ago.

All in all, Buckner has, in the past few years, become one of the area’s fastest-rising and developing horn players. As a musician who didn’t begin playing until the ripe old age of 23, Buckner’s development illustrates the steep arc of a late bloomer making up for lost time.

Buckner spent his wonder years in Ventura but moved with his family to Porterville for junior high and high school. After high school, he returned to Ventura and has called it home ever since. Although he played clarinet in elementary school, he said that “when I moved, that was my ticket to quit, because I wasn’t digging it.”

While Buckner has always had an ear for music, he didn’t pick up an instrument again until he landed back in Ventura a few years after high school.

“To tell you the truth,” he said, “I always wanted to play, but I thought that the guys that could play could always play. I never thought there was this period where nobody could play and then they started working on it.”

It might be hard to believe now, but jazz and Ventura enjoyed a rich, mutually supportive relationship several years ago. Buckner was then a fledgling horn player soaking in the available sound--mainly at another beachside club, Charlie’s. Charlie’s was then a died-in-the-wool jazz club, featuring such notables as saxophonist Joe Farrell and Pete Christlieb, and guitarist Larry Carlton as well as hot local acts.

“There was a serious jazz scene, which helped inspire me to play,” Buckner said. Charlie’s turned out to be influential in more ways than one. It was there that Buckner met his wife-to-be, Debra, with whom he now has a 2-year-old daughter.

Another Charlie’s regular was the widely respected be-bop saxophonist Gary Lefebvre, considered the best player in Ventura until he moved to San Diego a few years ago. Buckner struck up a friendship with the older player and would sit in on Lefebvre’s gigs. Buckner chuckled, saying: “I was hopelessly bad, but he’d still let me do it.”

One critical factor in Buckner’s plunge into music was his camaraderie with Dave Binney, the Ventura-bred saxophonist who moved to New York 10 years ago and, just this year, released an impressive debut album, “Point Game,” on the Owl label.

“We struck up a close friendship right off the bat,” Buckner recalled. “He opened my eyes to a lot of players and the realm of possibilities of learning how to play. I saw his work ethic and how diligent he was.”

Buckner studied with various Los Angeles-based teachers, including Don Raphael, Charlie Shoemake and, most important, classical saxophone teacher Phil Sobel.

“Phil had a huge influence,” Buckner said. “His whole emphasis was sound--to get the most out of the least amount of effort.”

A few years spent studying physical therapy at Ventura College failed to dampen Buckner’s resolve to make music his life. “It was about in 1985 that I decided, sink or swim, this is what I’m going to do. It was a matter of getting my priorities straight. I got into a serious practice regimen.”

In his formative period, Buckner focused on mastering the fundamentals without having a clear-cut career goal.

“I always felt that if I became a burning soloist, everyone would want to hire me. But my goals are forever changing. I never had an overwhelming desire to do my own band. I always had the sideman-type philosophy--until recently. I’m now changing my attitude.”

Things began to pick up in the last few years. Buckner began working in such Los Angeles clubs as Bon Appetit and Le Cafe and warming up studio audiences for “It’s Gary Shandling’s Show” and other television programs with keyboardist Greg Karukas. He played on demo tapes of songs by popular songwriters Tom Snow and Gerry Goffin. He came within a week of going on a European tour with drummer Alphonso Mouzon.

Buckner fell into the Geissman ranks on a trial-by-fire basis. After playing with various musicians in Los Angeles, Buckner’s name and number began circulating as a ripe candidate for sax work. Geissman called up a year ago to ask if he could play two days later, opening for the Beach Boys at the Santa Barbara County Bowl.

“I literally sight-read the gig up on stage,” Buckner said. “I got the charts a half hour before the gig, went up there, and I did a really good job.”

Geissman called again in March with a full roster of upcoming gigs. Buckner will have played close to 50 shows with him by the time the band plays at the Catalina Jazz Festival in October.

In spite of its rich jazz scene 10 years ago, Ventura itself hasn’t been very nurturing for Buckner, who does almost all of his playing in Los Angeles or Santa Barbara--which now boasts a strong jazz scene.

The last serious Ventura-based jazz work Buckner can claim was with a hard bop quintet led by keyboardist Theo Saunders, the Oxnard resident who remains one of Ventura County’s prize jazz resources.

“It’s a pretty sad scene right now,” Buckner said of the jazz performance options in Ventura at present. “The only thing I can say is that it happened before. Ventura was even smaller then. Who knows? Maybe it will happen again.”

While Buckner’s sideman career is well in flight, he has begun pursuing the idea of writing original material and eventually forming his own band.

Stylistically, he has no interest in the breezy fusion of the L.A. jazz sound, but would like to merge straight-ahead jazz ideas with the new “M-Base” jazz school, a type of cerebral funk-jazz category in which Buckner’s old pal Dave Binney’s album falls.

“Above all,” Buckner said, “I feel lucky, considering my late start--I started at an age where most players are already pretty darn good. I have strong passion for getting better. And I assume I will.

“When you’re always playing with guys who have 10 years on you, you go home feeling terrible a lot. You either want to quit or work even harder. Fortunately, I’ve felt the latter.”

* WHERE AND WHEN

Grant Geissman will perform at Presidio Chapel in Santa Barbara at 128 E. Canon Perdido St. at 8 p.m. Sept. 20. Tickets are $18. For information or tickets, call the Arlington Theater box office at 963-4408.