Jazz Guitarist’s Blend Has Its Roots in Brazil : * Music: Laurindo Almeida’s honesty and warmth come across in his work. He will appear Friday and Saturday at the Jazz Note in Pacific Beach.

By the time they reach legend status, jazz musicians seem to fall into one of two mind-sets. One is the ego-driven, I-told-you-so camp, occupied by players who only wonder why the world took so long to come around.

In the other camp reside players thankful for a long, productive career. Guitarist Laurindo Almeida, who plays this Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at the Jazz Note in Pacific Beach, represents in the fullest this healthier state of mind. He is the humblest of legends. His genuine honesty and warmth come across in his richly textured music, a one-of-a-kind blend of Brazilian and classical influences and jazz.

This 74-year-old, five-time Grammy winner could rest on his laurels, but he is too busy thinking about his fans. They are foremost in his mind when he considers which songs to include in his performances and on his albums, the latest of which, “Outra Vez,” was recorded live at the Jazz Note last month.

“I think of public acceptance,” said the gentle Brazil-born guitarist, who will celebrate the release of the new album at the club. “When I play in public, they applaud more for one number than another.”

Almeida gave San Diego’s jazz scene a substantial image boost by recording here. Jazz Note owner Steve Satkowski invited Concord Records, Almeida’s label, to record at his club. Of Concord’s countless albums, this was only the second made in San Diego County. The first was pianist Dave McKenna’s 1986 “My Friend the Piano,” recorded at Studio West in Rancho Bernardo.

“Steve kept bugging me to do it,” joked Carl Jefferson, president of Concord. “Laurindo is a dear friend. We’ve recorded him for more than 20 years. I knew (bassist) Bob Magnusson and (drummer) Jim Plank. We recorded Laurindo with Bob before. I think it went very well, and there’s no reason we wouldn’t (record at the Jazz Note) again.”

Almeida likes San Diego so much he has even flirted with the idea of moving down from Sherman Oaks, where he lives with his wife, singer Deltra Eamon, in a house he bought in 1966.

“I like that place, it’s very intimate,” Almeida said of the club Satkowski opened last May. “Steve did a good job there. He is a close friend of mine. I like him. He invited me. I know him from Elario’s, where I played every six months. Now, he opened his own place, he treats me right. So that’s why I work there. Besides, I like San Diego very much. La Jolla, it’s so beautiful and peaceful there, I take like a vacation.”

After four days of recording last October, Concord had 50 or so songs in the can. Eleven were selected by Almeida and his producer for “Outra Vez.” They do justice to the full range of Almeida’s craft, merging his sophisticated knowledge of jazz and classical music with his love of the sounds and rhythms of his native Brazil.

Because Almeida is the subtlest of players, not prone to parading his technical prowess, his music can sound deceptively simple. He has always eschewed picks in favor of his fingers, and has concentrated in recent years almost exclusively on an acoustic, nylon-stringed guitar. These technical choices lend his playing a friendly, mellow quality, but there is nothing laid-back about his playing.

Almeida takes a song and tells an emotional story.

On “Danza Five” from the new album, for example, he wrings maximum effect from chord changes and a melody that fluctuate movingly between heart-rending minor and uplifting major keys. He deftly mixes single-note strands of melody with full-blown chord flourishes.

From 1947 to 1950 as a member of Stan Kenton’s Big Band, Almeida was among the first jazz musicians to blend Brazilian sounds and rhythms with American jazz. He was a featured guitarist, composer and prolific arranger in Kenton’s band.

“There were a lot of Brazilian arrangements, and I wrote ‘Play Time in Brazil,”’ Almeida said. “I wrote three or four of his popular pieces. I did ‘Amazonia,’ when he added strings.

“When I first joined the orchestra, I let him know my feelings, that I didn’t want to join to be sitting back there playing rhythm. He said, ‘That’s why I want to hire you, to be featured’.”

Today, the impact of Almeida’s technically phenomenal playing is enhanced by his ingenious arrangements.

Whether reworking Anton Dvorak or Irving Berlin, or merging Beethoven with Thelonious Monk, Almeida puts engaging new rhythmic, harmonic and melodic spins on the classics, and he has written several potential classics of his own.

Almeida found his first jazz inspiration in Paris during the mid-1930s, when he heard the late, great guitarist Django Reinhardt.

“I met him briefly, just one day,” Almeida said. “I was only 17 years old. I went to Europe on a boat that was half cargo, half passengers, and it took six months to go to Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Germany.

“I found Django playing at the Hot Club of France. He was recording then with Stephane Grappelli. It was unique, he was playing improvisation. I think he was one of the pioneers. There was Charlie Christian, but in the history of the world, when there was a genius, there were two--Christian and Django.”

Almeida, who was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, believes there are precedents for his theory that artistic geniuses arrive in pairs.

“Bach, Vivaldi . . . Haydn,” he laughed. “Well, usually they come in twos.”

Classical composers are his heroes, as much as Reinhardt and other jazzmen.

“I like Rachmaninoff, all five concertos he wrote for piano and orchestra,” Almeida said. “There’s always something new to learn. Besides, the way he uses harmonies, you wonder if he was a jazz musician. I really have learned a lot from him.”

Almeida’s favorite guitarists including classical players Christopher Parkening and Andre Segovia, as well as San Diego-based jazz man Barney Kessel.

“I always admired Kessel,” Almeida said. “I knew him since the early years. He has a wonderful approach to harmony. I don’t find any other guys that use his approach. I knew him in Stanley’s band in 1950 when I started doing studio work, and he says, ‘My God, I love your way, I’d love to learn that,’ and I said, ‘I teach you this, you teach me jazz.’ So we got together a few times.”

Almeida has made more than 150 recordings as a leader, and estimated he has played on at least that many as a sideman.

He was a member of the now-defunct L.A. Four, and during the 1960s he recorded with the Modern Jazz Quartet, who will re-unite for a tour of Japan in May and a date at Carnegie Hall in June.

Almeida also continues a long career as a composer and player of music for movies. He can handle just about any string instrument, and played mandolin for “The Godfather” and lute for “The Ten Commandments.”

These days, Almeida seems completely content with his life and busy career. He relaxes by swimming each day in his back-yard pool, and, on weekends, he fools around with a Corvette he bought in 1966.

About his only regret is that sometimes, he longs for Brazil, which he last visited two years ago.

“I miss the soccer,” he said. “I miss the jokes. Brazil lives for jokes.”

* Almeida will play shows at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday , and at 7 and 9 Sunday night. He’ll be backed by Magnusson and Plank. Admission is $17.50 and includes a CD of “Outra Vez.”