SOUNDS AROUND TOWN : Ready for the Road : Ojai jazzman Maynard Ferguson will make a rare local appearance soon. His “Big Bop Nouveau” features young talents.

It was just another week in the life of Maynard Ferguson, he of the brash, stratospheric trumpet lines and, in stark contrast, avid devotion to the Eastern religious principles.

Ferguson had just returned to his home in Ojai, where he has lived for 18 years, after one of his regular trips to India, his spiritual homeland. When we talked, he was preparing to head out the next day on a long tour with his mini-big band, Big Bop Nouveau.

The veteran jazz bandleader thumbed through the itinerary and ticked off stops along the route, from points on the West Coast to Japan to cities in the former East Germany to Warsaw--and, for the first time, his band will play in India.

And, in the midst of all this globe-trotting, the band will land in Port Hueneme on Oct. 2. It will be a rare appearance for Ferguson in Ventura County.

For Ferguson, moving to Ojai in the mid-’70s was not so much a matter of living in a slower-paced locality within commuting distance of Los Angeles--as it is for many artists there. A follower of spiritual leader Krishnamurti’s teachings, Ferguson brought his family from India, with five children, to live in Ojai where Krishnamurti spent much time and near the Krishnamurti School.

“I just like it a lot here,” the chronically congenial musician said. “It’s beautiful. And I have great neighbors. Sometimes I practice outdoors. I’ve always felt that with the first complaint, I stop. I’ve never had one yet.” Ferguson laughed. “I guess they have a good sense of humor. I just make sure I don’t practice scales open-air.”

As with many other Ferguson groupings, Big Bop Nouveau is made up largely of gifted young players.

“It’s a young band, but, just like nowadays we notice that 16-year-olds are threatening to win the U.S. Open, the same thing is happening in music because of the up-leveling of music education.

“We’re seeing young musicians that come on to my band, and I’m not doing them any favors at all. They’re not only great improvisers, but they’re very well trained, which wasn’t the combination you were always lucky to get, say, 15 years ago.”

Young blood courses through Ferguson’s fine “Big Bop Nouveau” album, which he released on his own label this year.

Of particular note is the bristling alto saxophone work of Christopher Hollyday, who was 18 at the time of the 1989 recording (done at Santa Barbara’s Soundesign Studio). Hollyday has since carved out a healthy solo career. The saxophonist goes to town on the classic “Cherokee,” delivering an impassioned solo break in the middle of the chart.

Ferguson, now 64 and nowhere near retirement, similarly made his splash into the jazz world at an early age. A Montreal native, he quickly attracted attention with his aggressive phrasing and sinewy tone when he moved to the U.S. He played in the much-lauded “Birdland Dream Band” in the 1950s and worked in film and orchestral music, as well.

For many admirers of Ferguson’s pre-electric music, his recent return to the big-band format is a welcome reclamation of roots. Beginning in the late 1940s, Ferguson was a coveted new kid on the block who hopped from band to band and whose resume includes stints with Charlie Barnett, Jimmy Dorsey and Stan Kenton.

For much of his career, Ferguson has been an influential big-band leader in his own right, whose list of alumni taps directly into the upper echelon of jazz luminaries. Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, Chuck Mangione, Peter Erskine, Don Ellis, Gregg Bissonette, Chick Corea, and Bob James are among the former Ferguson sidemen.

While much of Ferguson’s music since the 1970s has been in a more electrified pop-jazz combo context, it wasn’t hard for Ferguson to make the switch back to a more horn-heavy instrumentation.

“I’m very much more comfortable with this format,” he said. “I won’t say that I’ve totally abandoned all the electronics, but at the same time, I got kind of bored with it after a while. I wanted to have the horn sections and conduct.”

The band’s second album, “Footpath Cafe,” was recorded live in Belgium and will be out next month.

“You can tell I’ve been in India,” Ferguson said, “because that’s what we named one of the originals I wrote with Christian Jacob. It has to do with those funny little paths in India, where suddenly they have a footpath cafe.

“How should I put this? You definitely should not eat there.” He laughed heartily. “It’s from the ethic of ‘Don’t drink the water.’ But there’s something adorable about it when you realize that those people look forward to getting to that point on their foot travels.”

Has he noticed, firsthand, the alleged renewed market for big-band jazz?

“I’ve noticed it, but I like to separate the big commercial dance bands from the bands of Basie, Ellington, Woody Herman, Stan Kenton and Buddy Rich. That, as opposed to the Glenn Miller (style of orchestra)--in-between in terms of being a jazz band, with great players, and a dance band. You need to separate the ‘old-time dance band’ from the jazz bands.”

Big Bop Nouveau seems to involve more of a “pure” jazz concept. Ferguson bristled a bit at the term.

“I always hate to use the word pure, because if something or an idea sounds good to me, I don’t worry about the category. If you evaluate an artistic idea too much instead of just doing it, that can be wrong, because I’ve had that work with purely far-out kinds of things, and I’ve had it work with ‘Going to Fly Now’ from ‘Rocky.’ That was just fun to do.

“Somebody said, ‘Hey, we just saw a preview and boy, you’d sound great doing that theme.’ He wasn’t even my A&R; guy or my producer. I said, ‘Hey, send me a tape of that.’ This is the way it happened, rather than my telling you that I’d been reading Billboard for the last 10 years and I had a feel for the pulse of the public and all that.

“We’ve had other successes where it’s gone into the pop thing, but none as big as that one, of course.”

Ferguson’s “Rocky” theme became a surprise hit for a musician more accustomed to the slower-paced world of jazz. Has he come to the point now where that signature tune has come to haunt him?

“No, I’ll tell you what: I’ve been very lucky with it,” he said. “Charlie Barnett was my leader back in 1949 when I first came to this country from Canada. He said, ‘Whatever you do, never record something that you don’t like just for money, or thinking maybe it will become a hit. God will punish you and make it your biggest hit. For the rest of your career, you’ll have to play the damn thing!’

“So when I got a hold of the ‘Rocky’ tune, I called Jay Chattaway, who’s a really wonderful arranger. Jay and I planned it out, to make it more trumpetistic than what’s on film. The rest is history. A Top 10 single. Three Grammy nominations in 1978. All from an innocuous, slightly silly, heroic theme. Go figure.”

For the moment, Maynard Ferguson is back on Earth and back in the pursuit of jazz, doing his part to make the world--from Port Hueneme to New Delhi--safe for the big-band tradition.

* WHERE AND WHEN

Maynard Ferguson and Big Bop Nouveau, Oct. 2 at 8 p.m. at the Dorrill B. Wright Cultural Center, 575 Surfside Drive, Port Hueneme. Information: 986-6563.