A Jazz-of- All-Trades : Trumpeter Sal Marquez Is Master of Many Styles, Especially During His Regular Gig on ‘Tonight Show’

Sal Marquez loves playing jazz. His favorite trumpeter is Miles Davis, and Marquez’s debut solo recording, released in July, is a tribute to Davis titled “One for Dewey.”

Unlike some jazz musicians, however, Marquez is not above other styles of music. The trumpeter has played with musicians as disparate as Gregg Allman, Frank Zappa and ex-Door Robbie Krieger, contributed horn parts to television and movies (“The Fabulous Baker Boys,” “Havana”) and is the

ultimate jack-of-all-styles every weeknight as a member of the “Tonight Show” band.

Marquez and some of his band mates from the show, including pianist Kenny Kirkland and drummer Jeff (Tain) Watts, will appear as a quintet this Friday and Saturday nights at the Horton Grand Hotel downtown.

It’s a chance for them to get to some serious jazz, away from the diverse demands of the “Tonight Show,” where, Marquez admits, players can get frustrated that their high-powered jazz skills aren’t always put to the highest and best use.

But Marquez also says the high-profile TV job is more satisfying than some jazz fans might imagine. And the visibility is a boon to players, including Marquez and Kirkland, who are trying to further their solo careers.

“To please the general public, we have to make certain concessions as to what we play on the show. But the fact is, they’re not just 20-second bits to us,” Marquez said, referring to the short snatches of music that are all some viewers see or hear of the band. “They go into a commercial and come out, but all that time we’re playing. It’s frustrating if you’re watching the show, but if we treat it as, ‘Hey, we’re here to play a set,’ we get pretty well satisfied.”

For Marquez and Kirkland, the “Tonight Show” exposure couldn’t come at a better time. Marquez’s “One for Dewey” marks the start of his six-album deal with GRP Records, the major jazz label in New York, and Kirkland’s self-titled solo recording debut came out last year, also on GRP.

The recent successes are Marquez’s reward for many years of paying dues, for persevering through more than two decades of mere survival in the music business.

Unlike some of the 30-ish players in the “Tonight Show” band, including Marsalis, Watts and Kirkland, Marquez is 48, an age when midlife crisis can set in and an artist can start doubting whether he or she will ever make it solo.

“All these years I’ve known that I had something special as a musician, but I’m not the kind of person to go out and ask for anything,” said Marquez, a mostly self-taught player who grew up small towns in Texas. “Somehow I was blessed in that sense, that I kept practicing and kept playing and kept my standards high, and I was fortunate to have someone in a powerful position take notice.”

Marquez refers not to Marsalis and the “Tonight Show,” but to Dave Grusin, one of the founders of GRP, who first heard Marquez during the mid-1980s at a Los Angeles club.

“He said, ‘I’ll call you to do something,’ and he was one of few people who actually called. Most of people here in Los Angeles, they all say, ‘Yeah, I’ll call you,’ and you never hear from them again. Grusin was the only one who said, ‘I’ll give you a buzz,’ and came through big time for me.”

GRP offered Marquez artistic license, and he originally thought his solo debut would emphasize original material. But after Miles Davis died last year, Marquez decided to do a tribute. He selected tunes including “ ‘Round Midnight,” “In Your Own Sweet Way” and Davis’ “Solar” to go with two of his own.

His sidemen are mostly from the “Tonight Show,” and while it would be easy to assume that there’s a savvy marketing angle here--a double PR whammy of TV exposure and recordings featuring the players together--Marquez actually knew the musicians long before they came together on Jay Leno’s show.

“Jeff and Kenny would come through Los Angeles and sit in with me,” he said. “Branford hand-picked the ‘Tonight show’ band. I knew him through Kenny and Jeff.”

Names such as Watts, Marsalis and Kirkland are very familiar to jazz fans who followed the emergence of a new generation of dedicated straight-ahead players during the late 1980s, but Marquez’s is not as well known.

He has genuine jazz experience, including his 1960s jobs in the big bands of Woody Herman and Buddy Rich, although the 1970s and ‘80s were more dominated by studio work. There were seasoned studio musicians in Los Angeles, including members of the old “Tonight Show” band, who questioned his selection for the show, Marquez says.

“A lot of them took offense. They didn’t think I deserved to be there,” he said. “All I know is there was a lot of talk and it came my way, people discussing the fact that how did I get this gig all of a sudden?”

Some of the talk was motivated by pure jealousy, Marquez guesses. At any rate, he’s got a forum to prove what he can do.

“Man, I deserve this gig,” Marquez said. “I don’t think there’s a person here in Los Angeles that could do this gig . . . “

Better?

“Thank you. A lot of the great musicians know I deserve this gig.”

That bit of friction aside, Marquez is enjoying the job, which involves more than just playing music.

On tonight’s program, for example, Marquez will appear in a Halloween skit as Frankenstein.

He’ll be leaving today’s show’s taping in a hurry tonight, driving straight to the Horton Grand, where he’ll display a trumpet sound caught somewhere between Marsalis’ generation and an earlier group that first influenced Marquez.

“Age has nothing to do with the music,” he said. “I’m in spirit with the music. I’ve hung around with all the old guys when I was young, I was very fortunate to meet guys like Blue Mitchell, Cat Anderson, Junior Cook, and I hung out with Freddie Hubbard.”

Marquez admires the cool fire of 1950s and ‘60s Davis, but he also likes raucous, up-tempo numbers, and he promises this weekend’s dates will be more explosive than the mellow mood that pervades on “One for Dewey.”

“That was pretty laid back,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of new stuff we’ve been doing, stuff that’s going to knock people out. We’ll have some things that are smoking and things that are laid back as well. We can do the gamut. We’ll be ready for San Diego!”

Sal Marquez and the “Tonight Show” band will perform tonight and Saturday at the Horton Grand Hotel downtown. Music starts at 8:30 both nights. 544-1886.