There’ll Be Life After ‘Tonight’ : 20-Year Severinsen Saxophonist Pete Christlieb Has Lots to Look Forward to

“What are you going to do when ‘The Tonight Show’ is over?”

That’s what a lot of people are asking Pete Christlieb these days, and he’s got answers: “I’m going to work on my house, travel a bit and play some jazz,” says the saxophonist, who has been a member of Doc Severinsen’s orchestra since 1972, when “The Tonight Show” moved from New York to Los Angeles.

Christlieb, whose work has a robust tone and a rollicking, swinging style, has relished having what he calls “the greatest gig in the jazz business. I’m one of the luckiest guys ever to have gotten a job that lasted 20 years, that allowed me to buy this house and raise my kids,” he said by phone from his home in Northridge, where he lives with his wife, Sherry, and the youngest of their three sons, P.J.

Still, he’s not sure whether he’ll join Severinsen and the band on an extended tour scheduled to start when “The Tonight Show” ends. “It’s a tough decision,” Christlieb said. “I can’t see riding all over the country in a bus, eating at Howard Johnson’s and then getting to the next gig with no sleep.”

In any case, Christlieb’s career hasn’t been limited to “The Tonight Show.” He’s been consistently active as a studio musician (he’s spotlighted on Natalie Cole’s smash hit “Unforgettable”), a clinician and teacher and also as a riveting jazz soloist and small-band leader. He’ll play Sunday at Maxwell’s in Huntington Beach.

Severinsen’s is hardly the only big band he’s been involved with. He’s been playing in them since he was a kid. At 47, his credits include the Woody Herman and Louie Bellson ensembles and the Capp-Pierce Juggernaut.

“If I died and came back as a big band, I’d come back as Bill Holman’s band,” he said. Holman, an L.A. musician who has written and arranged for Herman, Severinsen and Buddy Rich as well for his own group, is “my favorite writer by far,” Christlieb said. “Playing his music is a treat.” (Christlieb plays a Holman arrangement of Duke Ellington’s “Prelude to a Kiss” in the forthcoming David Mamet film, “Glengarry Glen Ross.”)

Still, Christlieb says, he’d rather play in a combo than anything else. “There’s more space, more freedom of expression. And,” he added with a laugh, “it’s easier to get a gig.”

Christlieb, who was born in Venice, Calif., is from a musical family: His father is the heralded bassoonist Donald Christlieb and his mother, Pearl, was a singer. He began violin lessons at age 6; when he was a teen-ager, his father gave him his first tenor sax.

Bob Cooper became his mentor. “I was 16 or 17, and Bob gave me lessons,” Christlieb said. “He let me sit in with him when he was playing with the Lighthouse All-Stars (at the Lighthouse Cafe in Hermosa Beach) in the ‘50s. When he got too busy in the studios, he recommended me for the Lighthouse job. Lately, I’ve been able to get him gigs on ‘The Tonight Show’--that’s a thrill. He’s my favorite saxophonist and is still my inspiration.”

Cooper is featured on Christlieb’s latest release, “Mosaic” (on the Capri label), recorded live at the Portland Inn in Oregon. Christlieb also teamed up recently with pianist Lou Levy, another longtime associate, to make an album for Polygram to be released in the summer.

Levy and Christlieb will play at the Jazz Bakery in Culver City May 23. “What I like about Lou,” Christlieb said, “is he’s always showing me tunes. One cannot spend enough time putting together an intelligent repertoire that pays respect to the greatest writers of our time and times before us.”

Christlieb said he finds teaching almost as rewarding as performing. “I do clinics at various schools, at Bud Shank’s camp in Washington and at Disney World in Orlando. I stress versatility. You can’t always make a living playing what you want to; you have to be prepared. Teaching is my way of putting something back into the business that’s given me so much.”

Pete Christlieb plays with Jim DeJulio’s trio Sunday from 2 to 6 p.m. at Maxwell’s, 317 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach. $4 cover, $7 minimum. Information: (714) 536-2555.