Dave Brubeck on Touring . . . ‘It’s Like a Vacation’

Unlike many players his age, Dave Brubeck loves to get out and tour.

“It’s like a vacation,” the 71-year-old pianist-composer said with glee during a phone call from his home in Connecticut. Brubeck and his quartet--Bill Smith, clarinet; Randy Jones, bass; and Jack Six, drums--play next Thursday at Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena.

“My work is so hard at home,” Brubeck went on. “I’m always writing. I’ve got so many commissions ahead of me. Right now I’m writing a concerto for violin and piano for a Canadian violinist and I’m getting ready to go into the studios to record a major work with the Gregg Smith singers.”

Whether on deadline or not, Brubeck, who celebrates his 50th wedding anniversary with his wife, Iola, on Monday , writes all the time. “I try to keep a blank bit of music paper in my wallet, and there’s a pad by my bed. Sometimes I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and write something down,” he said. “I also write a lot on airplanes. The music in my head never stops.”

Brubeck remains best known for two 1960s Columbia Records albums, “Time Out” and “Time Further Out.” Those collections produced such classics as “Take Five,” his biggest hit and, ironically, a tune written by his late saxophonist Paul Desmond, “Unsquare Dance,” “Blue Rondo ala Turk” and “Kathy’s Waltz.”

“In this country, ‘Take Five’ and ‘Blue Rondo’ are the favorites, in Europe it’s the other tunes,” he said. But with musicians, it’s “In Your Own Sweet Way,” a melodic gem that’s been recorded by countless jazzmen, from Miles Davis to Bill Evans.

Brubeck knocked out the piece in the early ‘50s, almost on a dare.

“At the time, my band was playing nothing but standard tunes and Paul said we should hire somebody to write some material for us,” he recalled. “I said, ‘Are you kidding? I’ll write two tunes in half an hour.’ I did, and one of them was ‘In Your Own Sweet Way.’ ”

New on the Airwaves: For the first time since KKGO-FM dropped jazz and turned to a classical format two years ago, Los Angeles has a commercial jazz station. Calling itself “Jazz FM 103.1,” KAJZ (in the Los Angeles area) and KBJZ (in Orange County) hit the airwaves on Monday, offering what program director Lawrence Tanter called a “smooth jazz” format. The station features an appealing format of easy listening selections by such artists as Al Jarreau, Oscar Peterson, Bobby Lyle, Dianne Reeves, Stan Getz and Gerald Albright.

“This will not be a Quiet Storm station, we’re not New Adult Contemporary, we’re not a Wave station, we’re a jazz station,” said Tanter, who has been the Los Angeles Lakers’ game announcer for 12 years and who has been affiliated with “quiet storm” formats at KUTE-FM, and, until about a month ago, at KACE-FM.

The station, formerly known as Mars-FM, can be heard 24 hours a day and features such on-air personalities as Tanter (2 to 6 p.m., Monday-Friday), China Smith, Brooke Jones and Joe Huser.

Critic’s Choice: The Black/Note quartet, one of the town’s best young traditional, acoustic-based bands, is holding forth Thursdays through the end of the year at Marla’s Memory Lane. The entertainment policy is back in the on-position at the long-standing Los Angeles nightspot after going through an on-again, off-again flux since the first of the year. The top-flight group, which made a solid debut CD, “43rd & Degnan,” features bassist Mark Shelby, saxman James Mahone, pianist Ark Sano and drummer Willie Jones III. Information: (213) 294-8430.