Patterson Blows the Horn of Women Musicians : Jazz: The saxophonist, who fronts a quintet this weekend at Maxwell’s, has played a large part in changing people’s attitudes toward female performers.

As saxophonist and bandleader Ann Patterson tells it, a woman from New York came up to her at the recent National Assn. of Music Merchants convention in Anaheim and said, “You’re the reason I play the saxophone. I heard you play with (trumpeter) Don Ellis when I was in high school and told my mom, ‘If she can do it, I can do it.’ ”

The Texas-born Patterson has been breaking ground for women musicians since joining Ellis’ band in 1977. Says friend and saxophonist Sonya Jason, whose own band plays Randell’s in Santa Ana on Saturday, “Ann has gone through struggles that I won’t ever have to. She’s built a foundation for the acceptance of women in music, and has gone out of her way to give women a place to play.”

Patterson fronts a quintet with trumpeter Stacy Rowles, bassist MaryAnn McSweeney, pianist Kathy Rubbicco and drummer Jeanette Wrate tonight and Saturday at Maxwell’s in Huntington Beach.

She said she’s seen conditions improve since 1980 when Maiden Voyage, the much-heralded, all-female big band she leads, was launched.

In a phone conversation from her home in Venice, Patterson said, “I can see how things have changed in my own experience, in doing commercial work, casuals and things like that. And there are women in visible positions now, like (drummer) Terry Lyne Carrington and (saxophonist-composer) Jane Ira Bloom, who have finally been recognized. Years ago when (Bloom) was starting to record, she was doing it on her own. Now she’s on a major label.”

That doesn’t mean that women musicians, especially those not playing the accepted “ladylike” instruments of flute, violin or harp, no longer face difficulties.

“I was told the other day that I was recommended for a studio job, but the person doing the hiring said, ‘No, we don’t want a woman. We hired a woman once and it didn’t work out.’ So that kind of thing still goes on sometimes,” she said.

Another indication that the struggle is far from over is the fact that Maiden Voyage has yet to release an album, despite 12 years of experience and numerous high-visibility performances at the Playboy, Monterey and Concord jazz festivals--and “The Tonight Show.”

“I’m trying to get the band recorded this year, but I’ve said that before,” Patterson says. “But now, it’s the No. 1 goal.”

The reasons the band hasn’t recorded?

“A lot of big bands aren’t recording,” she said. “There’s no money available and I haven’t been willing to record the band without the musicians being paid (union) scale for their work. The other reason is that it takes a great deal of effort on somebody’s part to get a big band recorded and I keep getting sidetracked with having to make a living.”

Patterson picked up the sax back in her hometown of Snyder, Tex., while in the sixth grade.

“I wanted to play the drums, but it was suggested that that was a man’s instrument. I’d played some piano by then, but didn’t know what to do next. The family had a saxophone that my brother had played, so I started on that. But then the band director switched me to oboe, because I had a good ear and pitch is always a problem with the oboe. It’s also a lot smaller than the sax and was easier to carry to school. I didn’t play saxophone again for 10 years.”

Her first exposure to jazz came in the mid-’60s while she was enrolled at North Texas State University. “I had a boyfriend in the lab band and that’s when I first started hearing Cannonball Adderley, Charlie Parker and John Coltrane--he played the records.”

Patterson taught music for two years at the University of Wisconsin at Steven Point, then moved to Champagne, Ill. where she got a master’s degree in music education.

She moved to Southern California in 1974 when her then-husband was hired by McDonnell Douglas. She worked as a substitute teacher for a year in Orange County, taught the next year at Los Alamitos High School and, later, part time at Cerritos College. All the while, she harbored other ambitions.

“I wanted to play jazz ever since I discovered it in college, but I was always busy studying classical music. And I didn’t see any women out there doing it, so it took me a while to realize it could be done.”

She polished her chops studying jazz at the Dick Grove School of Music and improvisation with vibraphonist Charlie Shoemake. She was playing with Charles (Doc) Rutherford’s band at Orange Coast College when she was recruited to play in Ellis’ band. “I started out playing a rehearsal and they just kept me in the band. I just wanted a chance to play Don’s music.”

Patterson toured Europe with the band and made two recordings with Ellis. “I wasn’t the jazz player in Don’s sax section. I was there to play those difficult parts, being a good reader. That’s how I made it into the band. Also doing some oboe doubling, that helped me.”

Her life took a turn when she and drummer Bonnie Janofsky led an all-female big band that performed at the Kansas City Women’s Jazz Festival in 1980. A warm-up at the now defunct Donte’s in Burbank led to an appearance on Johnny Carson’s “The Tonight Show.”

The band broke up after the Carson appearance, but reorganized later that year with Patterson at the helm.

“We wanted to change people’s attitudes toward women musicians. Back then, it was assumed a woman couldn’t play as well as the guys. We knew that one good woman musician could change that kind of attitude. But if there were 17 of us, it would make more of a statement. We also wanted a place for women who wanted to be in a big band to play and get experience and exposure.”

In addition to her work with Maiden Voyage, Patterson has played with the Capp-Pierce Juggernaut and Bill Holman’s big band. She’s also appeared with the likes of Cleo Laine, Joe Williams, Lou Rawls, Barry White and Frank Sinatra Jr.

Her television and film credits include soundtracks to “Magnum P.I.,” “Perfect Strangers,” and “The Flash.” She is also active in education programs, teaching jazz history and doing school concerts.

In addition to focusing on recording Maiden Voyage, Patterson says she wants to spend time working with her small group and composing. Acceptance, she finds, comes more easily today.

“One thing that has changed for me is that I don’t think of myself as a woman musician anymore. I just think of myself as a musician. People used to approach me that way, I would get jobs because I was a woman musician. Now that doesn’t happen so much.”

* Ann Patterson and the Maiden Voyage All-Stars appear tonight and Saturday at Maxwell’s, 317 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach, 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. $5 cover, $7 minimum. (714) 536-2555.