Pianist Heeds Call : Alan Broadbent is taking a break in October from his Glendale gig to play with bassist Charlie Haden’s Quartet West in Europe.

Alan Broadbent can hardly believe it, but he’s back on the road again.

Twenty years ago, the New Zea land native toured the world as the Woody Herman orchestra’s pianist and one of that band’s chief composers and arrangers. This year, he joined the core quintet that backs singer Natalie Cole--she hires ad hoc, supplemental string orchestras for her engagements--and he has appeared with Cole on numerous one-nighters in the United States and Europe.

The ace pianist, who with his longtime trio--bassist Putter Smith and drummer Billy Mintz--performs today at Drake’s in Glendale, said people shouldn’t compare then with now.

“Absolutely horrible” was the way the normally soft-spoken Broadbent, 45, described his travels with Herman. In a conversation from the Santa Monica home he shares with his wife, Alison, Broadbent said: “I had my seat on the bus right behind the driver with my pillows and my bottle of Nyquil. And we stayed in $8-a-night hotel rooms that were like cells.”

Things are a bit more upscale with Cole.

“Oh, it’s a different kind of adventure,” said a brightening Broadbent, whose latest album is “Live at Maybeck Hall” on the Concord Jazz label. “We have luxury buses with CD equipment and televisions. I have my own tech man who tunes my acoustic piano each night.”

Broadbent, whose melodic, be-bop-based style of improvising has been a highlight of the Southern California jazz scene since he settled here in the mid-1970s, hastened to add that his experiences with Herman and Cole have been of the highest level musically. These situations, he said, have allowed him expression “of the idiom that I am idiomatic in, that is my music.”

Cole, thought by many to be simply a fine pop singer, is, according to Broadbent, a superb jazz artist.

“The way she responds to a rhythm section, it’s a real jazz response,” he said. “Within the context of her material, I can be very free with the chords and how I accompany because I know she’ll respond to what I do. More importantly, she knows I’ll respond to her. . . .”

Broadbent is taking a brief hiatus from the job with Cole and will return in December. He landed the job after playing on Cole’s hit album, the Grammy-winning “Unforgettable” on Elektra Records. He has gone on to write four arrangements for Cole, including an orchestral version of “Crazy He Calls Me” and a big band rendition of an obscure song by her father, Nat King Cole, “Indian Sign.”

Broadbent said he found the arranging to be “incredibly inspiring” because it brought back the memory of Nelson Riddle, who scored so many works for Nat Cole, Frank Sinatra and, in the late 1970s, Linda Ronstadt.

“I used to work with Nelson, orchestrating some of his dance band charts and things for TV in the late ‘70s, and we became friends after a while,” Broadbent said.

While he’s off the road, Broadbent is completing another writing assignment, scoring orchestral arrangements of standards for 20 strings and rhythm section that will be recorded by Scott Hamilton, a Swing Era-style tenor saxophonist with an expansive sound. But Broadbent won’t be home long: He’s off to Europe in October to play with bassist Charlie Haden’s Quartet West, a group he’s been a member of for five years.

“I love playing with him,” the pianist said of the renowned bassist, who also features saxophonist Ernie Watts and drummer Larance Marable in his band. “He’s one of the greatest musicians I’ve ever known.”

If Broadbent had his wish, he’d perform with his trio much more often.

“It’s hard for us because there’s no steady work, but still, when we play, there’s a unity that I really like, and we seem to find each other very fast,” he said.

Bassist Smith, who has been a colleague of Broadbent’s for 15 years, said their performances are always challenging.

“Playing with Alan is the most frightening and demanding thing I do,” Smith said in a separate interview. “It’s also the most rewarding.”

Broadbent is one who thinks that life without music would be a mistake.

“Music is the whole raison d’etre, for all of it,” he said. “That’s the focus of the day. That’s the thing that helps us rise above it all, that gives some other people hope.”

Where and When

What: Alan Broadbent’s trio.

Location: Drake’s, 330 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale.

Hours: 8 p.m.-midnight today.

Price: $5 cover, two-drink minimum.

Call: (818) 246-6954.