Workaday Saxophonist Webb Getting Chances to Cut Loose

Saxophonist Doug Webb is like most of us: He’d like to be independently wealthy.

“I think my playing would be much better if I were,” he said. “I could just play.”

But although Webb, tall and slim, has the handsomeness of William Holden, he isn’t independently wealthy. So, like the rest of us, off to work he goes. He has to take care of more than just himself: Webb, 32, is a weekend father whose son, Ryan, is 5.

And even now, when musical employment is at a dramatic low, he works steadily--both in clubs and at recording studios.

Webb’s live engagements are mostly in a jazz context, which is again to his favor--playing jazz is his chosen pursuit.

Some of these jobs emphasize less listener response than others, such as his background-style duo gigs with a pianist at Bistango in Irvine, or when he supports blues singer Debbie Yeager at Mum’s in Long Beach.

But now and then, Webb, 32, a persuasive, often volatile improviser with a saxophone sound that sings, gets to let loose and, as he puts it, “do what I do.” On Friday, Webb’s tenor saxophone is featured at Legends of Hollywood with drummer and owner Bob Marks’ Hollywood Boulevard All-Stars. On Saturday, Webb will be found at Lunaria, performing as part of trumpeter Steve Huffsteter’s quintet. On March 8, Webb begins a series of Monday night trio dates at Cafe Concerto in Costa Mesa.

During a conversation at his Hollywood apartment, the saxophonist, in a maroon silk shirt, black jeans and yellow-orange Tony Lama ostrich skin cowboy boots, talked about his jazz life. He has performed with trumpeters Freddie Hubbard and Sal Marquez, drummer Alphonse Mouzon, bassist Brian Bromberg and pianist Rob Mullins, and has recorded with Bromberg and Marquez.

Webb, who named John Coltrane, Hank Mobley and Sonny Rollins as primary influences, has a string of reasons for enjoying a performance with Marks.

“It’s a chance to play in a quartet setting, playing straight-ahead jazz, which is be-bop basically,” he said. “We get loose, and I play pretty aggressively, so that’s great.”

The saxophonist uses a phrase such as playing aggressively interchangeably with a term such as stretching out. Asked to define the latter, he said: “More intensity, more tension and release. The solos will have more development, more range of musical ideas, more of a diverse array of emotion, more to draw from when you’re playing.”

After a pause and a thoughtful sideways glance, he added, “It’s hard to describe music with words.”

Marks, on the other hand, had no problem finding the words to describe Webb, who has played at Legends about a dozen times in the past year. “He’s a real high-energy player. When he’s there, he makes the room electric.”

At Bistango, where Webb appears Tuesdays, he accentuates his melodic proficiency, soothing listeners with gentle ballads and tender treatments of jazz classics and pop standards. The two styles--the way he plays at Legends and at Bistango--have equal appeal, he feels.

“I really enjoy both,” he said. “In fact, my playing naturally goes both ways,” he said, his left arm swaying like a pendulum. “I’ll search, going for new things, then take everything I’ve done and bring it back and incorporate it, making it all work. It’s like ‘going for it’ versus playing everything perfectly.”

Webb, who said he is doing well financially, does not rely on his club work to get by.

After all, wages in nightclubs are notoriously low--Webb has made as little as $25 a night, and as much as $400.

His studio work provides the bulk of his income. He does 60 to 100 studio calls a year. And although this work is not as creative as his jazz club performances, it has its satisfying moments. “I really try to get up for any recording session,” he said.

Although he doesn’t come right out and say that the money is studio sessions’ main reward, he grinned when he told a visitor that a recent jingle for a pantyhose firm took about 30 minutes to make and resulted in a $200 paycheck.

Webb, born in Chicago and raised in Woodland Hills and Huntington Beach, played piano at age 5, clarinet at 8, and saxophone at 15. His first clarinet and sax teacher, Don Hawkins, was inspirational. “He was a real groove,” Webb said. “He seemed to love his job, even seemed to love little kids that didn’t practice. I thought a lot about him when I was making the decision to make music my career.”

From 1978 to 1982, Webb attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

“You played all the time,” he said. “The best thing about it was that when you become a professional, everything you’re doing is about working and making money. At Berklee, your only concern was about the music, without a thought to what might be commercial.”

Despite the financial demands of his life, Webb’s heart remains in non-commercial jazz.

He played a tape of a live trio job with Mouzon and bassist Bob Harrison in Germany, where the saxophonist blew with passionate expression. After a visitor applauded, Webb gave a sweet smile.

“I feel lucky to be playing be-bop and jazz,” he said.

Doug Webb plays from 8 p.m. to midnight Friday at Legends of Hollywood, 6555 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. No cover, no minimum. (213) 464-7780. Webb also plays from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday at Lunaria Restaurant & Jazz Bar, 10351 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles. $8, two-drink minimum. (310) 282-8870.