‘West Coast Jazz’ Trumpeter Toots a New Horn : Music: Shorty Rogers and friends didn’t know they were forming a new sound back in the ‘40s and ‘50s, and not being one to rest on his laurels, Rogers has switched to a new sound again--the fluegelhorn.

Southern California emerged as a cool spot on the American jazz scene during the 1940s and 1950s, and Shorty Rogers was at the nexus of the movement that eventually became known as West Coast Jazz.

Rogers and his cohorts--melodic, sensuous players such as Stan Getz and Lee Konitz--came to Los Angeles from the East Coast to forge a fresh, easy sound that captured some of the optimism and warmth of their sunny new home. During the 1950s, Rogers was a member of a house band at the Lighthouse, the Hermosa Beach club that helped germinate the new sound.

But Rogers, who plays the Horton Grand Hotel downtown tonight with some old friends, including San Diego pianist Mike Wofford, isn’t one to rest on laurels. Rogers has steadily shaped and molded a sound to go with his prodigious composing skills. Ten years ago, he switched from trumpet to the fuller-sounding fluegelhorn, and he now plays the instrument exclusively.

“People have said I was the first to record with a fluegelhorn in the modern jazz era, in the early 1960s,” Rogers said. “Not that that’s any feather in my cap, but I was able to get my hands on one first, and I like a nice mellow sound.”

At 67, Rogers is in the midst of a fresh burst of creativity. Last year, he inked a new five-album deal with the London-based Candid label.

His first recording for Candid, titled “America the Beautiful,” was released two months ago.

Rogers’ compositions fueled the Big Bands of Stan Kenton and Woody Herman, and Rogers remains a prolific composer. The new album contains his arrangements of the popular title track and pianist Bud Powell’s “Une Poco Loco,” but the rest of the songs are Rogers’ originals.

Although both Rogers and jazz historians commonly name Miles Davis as one of Rogers’ seminal influences, musicians--including San Diego guitarist Mundell Lowe, who has known Rogers since the early 1960s--hear little of Davis in Rogers’ work.

Rogers acknowledges a jazz encyclopedia’s worth of role models.

“This could take longer than the whole interview,” he laughed, when asked who he’s learned from. Then he embarked on a litany that ranged from Louis Armstrong and Bunny Berigan to Dizzy Gillespie and Clark Terry and young hot shots such as Wynton Marsalis and Terence Blanchard.

Despite the commercial and critical success of Marsalis and his peers, and the media attention they are accorded, Rogers is not entirely happy with the state of jazz.

“It’s a mixed bag,” Rogers said. “There’s a lot of activity, particularly in summer time, with a lot of jazz festivals all over the world. That’s a very healthy thing.

“You hear more jazz on television and in commercials. There seems to be a growth and acceptance of it. But, you know, I want more,” Rogers laughs. “Jazz is just a small percentage of the music scene when you think of the pop world and all that.

“In spite of the progress made, I definitely would like a lot more acceptance and opportunity. I’ve been to Europe and Japan. Jazz is loved all over the world, appreciated more in some places than here. The other part of it is, there’s an incredible amount of great talent coming up, but where do they go with it?”

The jazz scene of Rogers’ young and early years as a professional was booming, compared to 1992. Big Bands packed dance halls on both coasts. Eventually, Rogers played with many of them.

Born in Lee, Mass., Rogers was handed his first horn at age 5.

“My father was a local tailor,” Rogers recalled. “One day a fellow that worked for him came in with a bugle and said they’d started a drum and bugle corps. He asked if I wanted to try it. I don’t remember what I said, but, eventually, they talked me into it. The family standing around said, ‘Put your lips together and blow some air,’ which I did, and a note came out, which probably sounded horrible, but because I was a little kid, they said it sounded great.”

Between 5 and 13, Rogers honed his bugle skills, joining a second corps after his family moved to the Bronx when he was 9.

“At 13, a young Jewish kid, I was bar mitzvahed and my father asked me what I wanted for a present, and I said I would like to get a trumpet. We went to a local hock shop and got one for $15, which you can’t do anymore.”

Rogers began teaching himself, and, at 14, played along with his older brother and sister’s jazz 78s, learning solos by Berigan and Harry (Sweets) Edison, note for note.

Through these years, Rogers was self-taught, but at 14, he enrolled in the High School of Music and Art in New York City, and by graduation had learned the technical, theoretical side of his trade, including reading music.

“Jazz in those days was kind of bypassed at the school,” Rogers said. “Not really frowned on, but deleted. I played in a symphony orchestra. When I graduated, I was fortunate enough to have a job waiting for me, definitely a gift from the Lord.”

Rogers joined trombonist Will Bradley’s band, but the draft ripped the band apart in 1942, and Rogers spent his war years in an Army band. He took a job with Herman’s band in 1945 and moved to Los Angeles in 1946.

At the Horton Grand, Rogers has teamed with fellow Lighthouse alums Bob Cooper on tenor sax and Larance Marable on drums. Saxman Bill Perkins, another Lighthouse graduate, was scheduled to appear, but was called away by his “Tonight Show” duties and has been replaced by saxophonist Lanny Morgan. Wofford, a member of Rogers’ group during the 1960s, and San Diego bassist Bob Magnusson, who has recorded with Rogers, will round out the group.

As for the Lighthouse gang, Rogers said he and his talented musical peers were never aware they were doing something special.

“We were just trying to have fun and have a chance to play, to go to a jam, let alone a paying gig,” said Rogers. “Thoughts of establishing a new style never entered my mind. I think maybe a distinctive sound did emerge, but I think it was just the sound that these guys made, guys trying to have fun, express themselves, as opposed to making a decision to start a new school of jazz.”

Shorty Rogers plays tonight at the Horton Grand Hotel at 8:30 p.m. There is a $5 cover charge.