The Vibes of Swing and Be-Bop : Jazz: Vibraphonist Terry Gibbs, 68, has overlapped two musical eras and says he got the best of both worlds.

A conversation with 68-year-old vibraphonist Terry Gibbs is a madcap journey through time and space.

One minute you’re with Gibbs as he describes last week’s 70th-birthday tribute to his longtime collaborator, clarinetist Buddy DeFranco, at the Ventura Club.

The next you’re walking down New York’s 52nd Street in the ‘40s with Gibbs, decked out in Army issue, on his way to see Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie for the first time.

That Gibbs is an energetic sort goes without saying.

Anyone who has heard him play--say, with his Dream Band at Disneyland last summer or with DeFranco at the Hyatt Newporter’s jazz series a couple of seasons back--knows that he brings this energy to the bandstand as well. Gibbs will lead a quartet at Maxwell’s in Huntington Beach tonight through Sunday.

His playing is much like his conversation: filled with sizzling runs, dazzling leaps, allusions and color, all driven by an amazingly accurate sense of time.

A product of two eras--swing and be-bop--Gibbs says he benefits by having experienced both.

“Let’s face it,” he said earlier this week by phone from his home in Sherman Oaks, “I played with Benny Goodman, and they didn’t call him the ‘King of Swing’ for nothing.

“But I also got to play at different times with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. And the Woody Herman band was loaded when I was there with that Four-Brothers band with (saxophonists) Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Serge Chaloff. (Pianist) Lou Levy was there and (trumpeter) Shorty Rogers. You can go down the list. I really got the best of both eras.”

If he had to choose?

“The swing era, with the big bands, was a great era, but to me, the be-bop era was really the greatest, the greatest music. And I think young people are discovering that today. All the young players are trying to play be-bop, like Roy Hargrove, the trumpet player; what he’s playing is be-bop. And it’s great to hear.”

Born and reared in Brooklyn, Gibbs was encouraged to become a percussionist by his bandleader father, who played bass and violin.

He won the “Major Bowe’s Amateur Hour” contest at age 12 playing xylophone and was active in school bands. “I played all the percussion instruments. In fact, I got a scholarship to Juilliard for timpani that I never accepted. I wanted to play jazz.”

Many of Gibbs’ memories of his formative years revolve around his childhood friend, drummer and composer Tiny Kahn, who died in 1953 before he could leave much of a recorded legacy.

“We’d audition for the same bands, and nine times out of 10 I would get the job because I had better chops than Tiny. I was a combination Jo Jones and Buddy Rich, because I had that technique. ‘Sing, Sing, Sing’ was the big song in those days, and I could do it some justice, but Tiny, that wasn’t his bag, playing those flashy drum solos. All he could do was out-swing us all.”

When Kahn introduced Gibbs to be-bop, he also pointed the way for Gibbs to excel at the vibraphone.

“He could hardly wait for me to come home from the Army one time. He said there was this new music called ‘be-bop.’ Now that would be like me saying there’s a new music called ‘billandubush’ or something--the word sounded so weird .

“At that time, I’d given up playing the vibes because I had too much technique and didn’t know what to do with it. My idols had been (saxophonist) Lester Young and (trumpeter) Roy Eldridge. They played very simply and beautifully. But when I heard Dizzy and Bird, I didn’t believe it.

“I didn’t understand what they were doing, but technically it got to me,” he said. “On a 15-day furlough, I spent 10 of it following those guys around, I was so fascinated. And Tiny introduced me to it.”

After his stint in the service, Gibbs went about solidifying his own reputation in the bands of Tommy Dorsey, Chubby Jackson, Goodman and Herman as well as forming his own bands. He came to Los Angeles in 1957 and began playing area clubs. He also worked television, most notably with Steve Allen, for whom he served as music director for about 18 years.

It was during the late ‘50s that Gibbs began assembling his Dream Band, a 17-piece outfit that included such musicians as saxophonists Med Flory and Bill Perkins, trumpeter Conte Candoli and drummer Mel Lewis. They played arrangements from such writers as Bill Holman, Al Cohn and Manny Albam. Contemporary Records has reissued five volumes of the Dream Band’s work, all dating back to 1959-1961.

Gibbs still uses Dream Band material when he works as a guest soloist in college and other bands. “It’s like that music is history. . . . I say, ‘What would you guys like to play?’ and they mention the tunes. And that’s how I know how good the band is, by the songs they’re mentioning. If they mention Bill Holman’s arrangement of ‘After You’ve Gone,’ then I know it’s a great band.”

Gibbs’ latest recorded work is 1991’s “Kings Of Swing,” a sextet including guitarist Herb Ellis and clarinetist DeFranco. That group continues to tour.

Gibbs’ combo for the Maxwell’s date includes bassist Andy Simpkins (“He’s my favorite bass player on this coast”) and drummer Frank Capp, who played with the Dream Band in the ‘60s. The youngster of the group is pianist Tom Ranier.

“To me,” Gibbs said, “everybody’s a youngster in that group. The only guys I’m younger than these days are Buddy DeFranco and Herb Ellis . . . or John Philip Sousa. That’s about it.”

* Terry Gibbs works with pianist Tom Ranier, bassist Andy Simpkins and drummer Frank Capp tonight and Saturday, 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. and Sunday, 4 and 6 p.m., at Maxwell’s, 317 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach. $5 cover plus $7 minimum. (714) 536-2555.