A Leftward Shift for a Jazz-Man : Music: Why would a mainstream composer move into the avant garde? Because the ‘50s ended more than three decades ago, explains Kim Richmond.

While the rain beat down on the Southland on Monday afternoon, composer-saxophonist Kim Richmond, rehearsing his 22-piece Concert Jazz Orchestra safe and dry in the basement at Musicians’ Union Local 47 headquarters, was moving to a different patter: the rhythm of drums and congas.

After a trumpet solo, the salsa-flavored number moved away from the familiar Latin rhythm into something spacious and open, something free, with the insistent beat of the conga providing a touchstone to what went on before.

The tune, “Brain Trouble,” is a good example of the inside-outside musical approach of bandleader Richmond, who brings his Concert Jazz Orchestra to El Matador in Huntington Beach tonight.

Richmond’s experience ranges from stints with the big bands of Stan Kenton, Louie Bellson, Les Brown and Bob Florence to service as musical director for such entertainers as Helen Reddy, Ann Jillian and Buddy Greco and beyond to free-form excursions with multi-instrumentalist Vinny Golia’s large ensembles. So why would a musician whose charts are played by college and high-school bands around the country and who has a host of film and television arranging credits make the move to the sometimes misunderstood world of the avant-garde?

“I find (free jazz) a lot more interesting,” Richmond said after the rehearsal. “It’s very expansive; there’s a lot more possibilities in it. We’ve done the straight-ahead thing all our lives and we can always improve on that. I’ve found that there’s so much more that’s emotionally interesting in free jazz. But to do it, you have to have groundwork in the tradition.”

Richmond began moving toward more forward-looking material in 1986 after studying in New York with clarinetist Eddie Daniels and pianist Richie Beirach. “With Daniels, I studied instrumental technique, the craft of it. With Richie, I studied improvisation. I’d play alto, he’d play piano. He told me, ‘You’re a good be-bop player. You play great ‘50s jazz. But we’re not in the ‘50s anymore. So I’m proposing to you that you free it up and incorporate everything that went on in the late ‘60s, the ‘70s and into the ‘80s.’

“So I kind of went the other direction from what I’d been doing, began leaning to the left and getting interested in players that do that: (saxophonist) Steve Coleman with (bassist) Dave Holland’s group--one of my big role models--(saxophonists) Kenny Garrett and Donald Harrison. Even all the players who’ve been around a lot like (saxophonist) Joe Henderson, they’re playing a lot more free these days, too.”

But Richmond’s compositions for his orchestra (he also leads the six-piece Kim Richmond Jazz Ensemble, which has an album out, aptly titled “Looking In Looking Out” on Golia’s 9 Winds label) are not just free-for-all blowing sessions. Instead, the composer, using the full-range of orchestral colors available from a 22-piece group that includes tuba, vibraphone and a pair of French horns, establishes harmonic and rhythmic structures in which to frame one or more soloists at a time.

“Brain Trouble,” for example, is much more structured when played by the orchestra than when it was recorded by the smaller ensemble. “The original way the tune was composed and done on the ensemble record was with a Latin feel, but real loose, with the improvisational section very free and floating and featuring several soloists simultaneously. On this arrangement (for orchestra) I went the other way. Instead of going left, I went right, into the more traditional salsa feeling.”

It’s not surprising that the 51-year-old composer, who was raised in Champaign, Ill., launches his free-jazz explorations from a place firmly anchored in tradition. His father, an attorney, was an accomplished stride pianist and exposed his son to the music of Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw.

After graduating from the University of Illinois with a degree in music composition and education, Richmond spent four years in the Air Force, playing sax, flute and clarinet with the Airmen of Note based in Washington, D.C. Shortly after his discharge, he joined the Kenton Orchestra and moved to Los Angeles.

He formed his Concert Jazz Orchestra in the early ‘70s. “It was basically a writing workshop for me. If I wrote something, I could bring it in and see how it went. My method back then was to try to write a different kind of piece every time. I would write something in the Gil Evans vein, then Quincy Jones or Bill Holman--the people I admired. Finally, I started to close in on a style of my own, a synthesis of all those influences.”

Richmond’s film and television credits include “Boulevard Nights,” “Airport ‘79” and the “Mary Tyler Moore Show.” He spent two years as music coordinator for the “Tony Orlando and Dawn” show.

Around 1980, he made a decision to give up writing. “There wasn’t time in the day to do both,” he said. “Usually writers give up their instruments and become just writers. I felt like I had a lot to do on the playing side and didn’t want to give it up. I started doing a lot of studio work, doubling on flute and clarinet.”

Richmond reassembled his orchestra in 1989 for the Monday big-band series at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles and has kept it together ever since. He’s also writing again. Earlier this year, Richmond did a duo concert at Harbor College in Wilmington, playing sax, flute and Electronic Wind Instrument (EWI) in completely spontaneous duets with Golia, trumpeter Clay Jenkins and other free-thinkers. In addition to his own appearances around town, he still conducts for Greco (they’ll be at Las Vegas’ Desert Inn in April for a week).

“I do enjoy working (with Greco). Doing it is part of the craft of the business. But my orchestra, I look at that as an artistic endeavor.”

* The Kim Richmond Concert Jazz Orchestra plays tonight at 8:30 at El Matador, 16903 Algonquin St., Huntington Beach. Admission: $6. Information: (714) 846-5337.