Brasstring Grabs Brass Ring With Recording Contract

Teddy Edwards, the saxophonist who has been a glowing light on the Los Angeles jazz scene since the mid-’40s, is one happy fellow these days. This week he fulfills a longtime dream when his Brasstring ensemble goes into the studios.

“After all these years, it’s finally coming through,” the 66-year-old hornman said with a robust laugh. “It’s a great satisfaction to hear your work come to life.”

Edwards first assembled Brasstring in 1977, and debuted it--with 33 pieces--at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre. It has made sporadic Los Angeles appearances through the years, at a trimmed-down 17 pieces, but has never recorded.

Brasstring--consisting of saxophone, five strings, five brass, harp and rhythm--will record Monday and Tuesday in Hollywood. The project will be released in late summer on Antilles Records, the label that released Edwards’ current album, “Mississippi Lad,” which includes two vocals by Tom Waits.

Among the performers in Brasstring--which also plays Sunday from 1 to 5:30 p.m., at Catalina Bar & Grill in Hollywood--are trumpeter Oscar Brashear, violinist Michael White, pianist Art Hillery and singer Lisa Nobumoto.

The group will deliver mostly Edwards originals that he crafted especially for Brasstring when he was recuperating from surgery in 1977. “A lot of people helped me out during that time and I figured I’d write something as a way of saying thanks,” he said.

Rim shots: Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, the Yellowjacket, Branford Marsalis and Billy Childs are some of the top names on this year’s 35th annual Monterey Jazz Festival being held at the Monterey County Fairgrounds on Sept. 18-20. Information: (408) 373-3366 . . . Lionel Hampton, Lee Ritenour, Arturo Sandoval and Gene Harris headline at the second annual Pasadena Jazz Festival, set for Aug. 8-9 at Ambassador Auditorium. Information: (800) 266-2378 . . . The Los Angeles Jazz Society has received a grant from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to help fund its free “Jazz Caravan” concerts.

Critic’s choice: What a week for trumpet lovers in particular, and traditionalists in general. First there’s Brian Lynch, whose performances with Art Blakey in the ‘80s and early ‘90s found him flowering into a trumpet ace. Lynch has joined the quintet of eminent alto saxophonist Phil Woods, which appears tonight at the Hyatt Newporter Resort in Newport Beach. Saturday, Woods-- sans quintet--traipses north to Los Angeles, performing originals by New York-based composer Manny Albam--some written particularly for Woods--with a big band at the John Anson Ford Theatre. Albam will be on hand to conduct.

Then we have trumpeter Tom Harrell, who spent several years with Woods’ band. He’s a must-hear for mainstream fans, as no one is playing more horn than this tall, expressive artist, who works Monday and Tuesday at Catalina Bar & Grill. But Marcus Belgreave, who follows Harrell into that Hollywood room on Wednesday and Thursday, will probably come close. The ex-Ray Charles craftsman arrives with a dandy quartet that includes pianist Kenny Kirkland.