MUSIC : Pianist Arranges Outing With Big Band : Tom Garvin, who has composed for ‘The Tonight Show,’ will perform at the Moonlight Tango Cafe in Sherman Oaks.

Tom Garvin, ruddy-faced and animated, is sitting at a well-worn wooden kitchen table in his Arleta home, lighting up a Camel and talking about the rigors of writing music.

He has composed for “The Tonight Show” but is perhaps better known as an accompanist for such singers as Carmen McRae, Ruth Price, Mike Campbell and Julie Kelly. “In my 20s and 30s, I felt I was really good. I wrote fast and with a lot of enthusiasm,” he says in a deep, resonant voice that contains an occasional word or phrase in Southern patois--he’s from Virginia--and what sounds vaguely like an echo, as if he were speaking into a barrel.

An accomplished jazz pianist, composer and arranger, Garvin clearly still has the enthusiasm, but says he has definitely tempered his approach to his work.

“Now I find myself looking over my shoulder as I write,” he says. “I suppose that’s how it should be, because the writing is better. But the process is a lot more painful than it used to be, when I didn’t question anything.”

The musician, who appears Tuesday at the Moonlight Tango Cafe in Sherman Oaks with his big band and vocalists Campbell and Paula Kelly, says, “I think when I was younger, my act was so good, I bought it.” He chortles at his own hubris. “As I got older, I found I could still sell it, but I couldn’t buy it.”

To many ears, Garvin has always written well. Some listeners may remember the crisp, buoyant work he did for Bill Watrous’ Manhattan Wildlife Refuge big band in the 1970s. Then there are the four spirited tracks--which reflected his chief influences, Bill Holman and Gil Evans--that he cut on his own “In 3 Dimensions,” released in the early ‘80s on ITI Records.

There are a number of Garvin pieces that have been heard by untold millions, though--the 40 or 50 charts that Garvin knocked out for Doc Severinsen’s “Tonight” band starting in 1972.

“I’d just write them and send them in,” he says. “I went in once and watched Doc rehearse one of my tunes, and he was excellent, making exactly the kinds of comments I would have made. So I thought, ‘Hey, I don’t need to be here.’ ”

Tunes that Garvin concocted for Severinsen will be part of his repertoire at the Moonlight Tango, where he makes his first big band appearance in 10 years. (The last was at the now-defunct Carmelo’s in Sherman Oaks.)

These pieces, Garvin says, have needed a bit of dusting off--stretching out a little here, assigning a different solo chair there--and at rehearsals, he admits, he sometimes becomes a nit-picker.

“We seldom go through more than four tunes at a rehearsal,” he says. Garvin insists that his colleagues play with dynamics--suitable rises and falls in volume. “Music can be played accurately, but it’s the dynamics that make it come alive.”

Garvin’s music has long been a favorite of Campbell. The singer first worked with the pianist in the early ‘70s, just after Garvin moved to Southern California from Washington. The pair have made several albums together, including Campbell’s latest, “Easy Chair” (Audiophile Records), due out in January.

“I’m obviously prejudiced, but I think Tom’s the best writer in the business,” said Campbell, who will sing Randy Newman’s “Marie” and Jerome Kern’s “The Song Is You,” among other numbers, Tuesday. “After all these years, he still brings so much out of me emotionally. He can push my buttons.”

Although regimes have changed at “Tonight,” Garvin is still writing for the program, but now his assignments call for background singers for vocalists or walk-on bits for visiting celebrities. He’s also busy developing a new book for singer Pam Feener, and he just arranged all the pieces performed at the recent classy tribute to Jimmy Rowles at the Jazz Bakery.

Nice work when you get it, says Garvin. “Depending on what month you called, my career was either going up to a new level, or I was never going to work again,” he says with a laugh. “Still, I’ve never done anything except write music and play it. I can’t complain.”

Where and When Who: Tom Garvin’s big band, plus singers Mike Campbell and Paula Kelly. Location: Moonlight Tango Cafe, 13730 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. Hours: 7 p.m. to midnight Tuesday. Price: $13, two-drink minimum. Call: (818) 788-2000.