In the Mood? Try ‘Saxxy Love Songs’

Saxophonist Gary Scott knows how annoying it can be when you buy an album for a song that’s caught your ear, then find out the other nine or 10 songs aren’t in the same spirit.

So Scott has recorded a collection with a title that sums up its consistent spirit: “Saxxy Love Songs.”

“It’s not a pure jazz recording,” said Scott, a 14-year Las Vegas show band veteran who moved to San Diego in 1986. “What I did was pick 11 of the best standard ballads there are. The scheme of this record was that most people hear something on the radio and go out and buy it and they don’t like the rest of the album. If they like one tune on this album, they’ll like all the tunes.”

Scott, who plays 13 different wind instruments and was Frank Sinatra’s featured soloist on live dates from 1975 to 1986, used tenor sax exclusively to capture the “saxxy” mood he wanted on the new release. Songs include “The Very Thought of You,” “When You Wish Upon a Star,” “My Foolish Heart,” “Stardust” and “Polka Dots and Moonbeams.”

There’s not much in the way of energetic improvising, but that’s not the goal here. Scott and his ace sidemen--bassist Bob

Magnusson, pianist Mike Wofford and drummers Jim Plank and Duncan Moore--sustain the sentimental mood with subtle, emotionally charged interaction. Scott glues it all together with plenty of honey, but the music is pleasantly sweet, not sticky.

Wofford and Magnusson have played together so much that they have a special rapport, as when Magnusson uses slow, meandering bass notes that fall lazily behind the beat to complement Wofford’s delicate, melodic solo on “How Are Things in Glocca Morra?”

Scott’s new CD is his first solo recording. He has a four-album contract with Los Angeles-based USA Records, and already has ideas for more music in various moods. Potential titles include “A Time for Sax” and “Saxxy Places.”

The upturn in Scott’s career comes as he rebounds from an auto accident that left him recuperating for most of last year. He spent four months in a torso cast mending broken ribs, and, while he wouldn’t repeat the experience, he says it did spark a burst of creativity.

“I’d lie in bed with my horn on my chest and Art Johnson would come over with his guitar and we’d play jazz,” recalled Scott, who lives on his 50-foot sailboat off Harbor Island. “That’s when I got the idea for this series of records. Lying there day after day, I got to thinking about things, and it just seemed like a natural.

“We did the album in two days a year ago this past May. Then I sat on it six months, not knowing what to do with it. I played it for my son, a police officer in Palm Springs. He borrowed it and played it for some people and they all wanted to buy it. That inspired me to give it to a couple of other people who had boat charters. They put it on their sound systems, and everyone wanted to buy it.”

On the recommendation of a friend, Scott submitted his recording to USA, and he signed a contract within days. USA has pressed 20,000 CDs, and Scott says he is getting national distribution that includes Tower Records stores.

You can catch Scott and Wofford at the Westgate Hotel in downtown San Diego every Thursday evening from 5 to 8, joined by bassist Tom Azarello and drummer Ron Ogden.

Meanwhile, Scott, best known to many San Diegans as leader of the currently dormant San Diego Jazz Orchestra, is thinking of bringing that ensemble back to life. In recent months, Scott has put together big bands to back performers such as Pia Zadora, Natalie Cole, Johnny Mathis and the Temptations, but he would like to find a place to showcase a big band on its own.

“The guys have been bugging me to reinstigate the San Diego Jazz Orchestra,” he said, “and I may indeed do it after the first of the year.”

When a dentist helps start a music label, then releases his own debut CD as one of the first projects, his motives as a label exec might be suspect. But Silver Strand Records, co-founded by Bob Mansueto, a Coronado dentist, got off to a respectable start earlier this year with the release of San Diego guitarist Kiko Cibrian’s debut CD, “Kiko.”

Mansueto’s “Like a Stranger,” the second offering from Silver Strand, came out last week, and, with assists from heavies such as Joe Pass and Larry Carlton, it comes off as a serious endeavor, not just a molar man messing around.

The music, most of it co-written by Mansueto, is a mixed bag, some of it jazzy, some of it more in a smooth pop vein most reminiscent of crooner Boz Scaggs, although Mansueto names James Taylor and Paul Simon as his primary pop influences.

Mansueto, who grew up in Coronado singing in Catholic school choirs, is no vocal powerhouse, and lyrics contributed by J. T. Childs often tend toward the sappy (“Coronado, there’s a place for you and me/Coronado, where your love will live forever more”). Capably produced by Silver Strand co-founder Jimmi Mayweather, the release contains several cuts that could gain FM airtime. In fact, KIFM (98.1) is already playing “Cool Vacuum,” the opening cut.

While his voice is only passable, Mansueto is a hot guitar player. Other than the guest spots by Carlton and Pass, he handles most guitar parts, and he proves what he can do with a searing Carlos Santana-like solo on “Highway One.” Next time out, Mansueto should consider showcasing his guitar.

In an unusual marketing approach, Silver Strand is advertising both Cibrian’s and Mansueto’s releases nationally on Art Good’s “Jazz Trax” program, which airs in 66 markets. By calling 1-800-845-8510, listeners can order the two CDs as a package for $23.95 plus $4.25 in shipping and handling.

RIFFS: San Diego clarinetist Bobby Gordon plays Espresso Literati in La Jolla (7660 Fay Ave.) this Friday night at 8. . . . San Diego guitarist Hank Easton opens for the horn-playing Brecker Brothers, whose comeback tour stops at the Rhythm Cafe in San Diego on Friday night at 9:30. . . . San Diego flutist Holly Hofmann plays the Horton Grand Hotel in downtown San Diego this Thursday night at 8:30, joined by bassist Bob Magnusson and pianist Mike Wofford.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

A LECTURE ON THE LEGEND

UC San Diego literature professor Quincy Troupe, co-author of the gritty 1989 Miles Davis autobiography, is also deep into the music of John Coltrane.

Troupe narrated a radio documentary on Coltrane during the 1980s, and at 7:30 p.m. Thursday he will pay homage to “the Trane” with a lecture on the legendary saxman’s life and music at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in La Jolla, 1008 Wall St.