Dad’s a Real Rowles Model : Jazz: The daughter of the brilliant veteran pianist took up the trumpet instead, but in other ways she is very much a product of her musical family.

A lot of musicians claim to have come from musical families. But few can claim as distinguished a parent as trumpeter Stacy Rowles can.

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Rowles, who joins guitarist Doug MacDonald’s trio tonight at Kikuya in Huntington Beach, is the daughter of Jimmy Rowles, the 76-year-old piano shaman whose career has included stints with Lester Young, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Woody Herman and Ella Fitzgerald. He played duos in the ‘70s with Zoot Sims and appeared on Stan Getz’s 1977 recording “The Peacocks,” the title tune being Jimmy Rowles’ best-known composition.

The younger Rowles says in a telephone conversation from her home in North Hollywood that, growing up, she didn’t think the constant parade of music and musicians through the house was out of the ordinary.

“Sure, there were things that I was exposed to that didn’t happen to other kids, the musicians who hung out with my father and the music I heard,” she said. “That was definitely an advantage for me. But at the time I didn’t think it was anything special.”

Rowles, who started playing the piano at 6, said there was no pressure from her famous father to follow in his footsteps.

“He gave me all the support in the world, but he didn’t push me,” she said. “I didn’t really like the piano much and spent a lot of time messing around trying to find my instrument. When I finally found the trumpet, he was delighted.”

Rowles turned to the horn the year before she began junior high school, taking lessons from her dad’s friend Graham Young, who was Henry Mancini’s lead trumpeter at the time.

Once when she was upstairs practicing, her father called for her to come down. “I was doing some Sousa march or something, and Dad yelled up and said, ‘Stacy, bring your horn and come here. Play for this guy on the phone. Nevermind who it is, just play.’

“So I played the march passage, and then Dad talked to the guy and laughed, and he handed me the phone and said ‘Here, say hi to Al Hirt.’ ”

Rowles didn’t follow exactly in the steps of her father, who’s known for an encyclopedic knowledge of standard tunes and an exacting taste in music.

“I was definitely into pop and rock growing up. I loved the Beatles, loved a lot of the Motown stuff. I didn’t dislike jazz, but I liked my music better. But when I got to high school and started playing in the band, jazz took on a whole new meaning for me. And Father didn’t mind that at all.”

After a five-year stint in New York during the mid-’70s, the elder Rowles returned to Los Angeles to find his daughter playing in saxophonist Ann Patterson’s big band, Maiden Voyage. “I guess he was impressed with what he heard, because after the show he said we ought to do some things together. So we started playing.”

Since then, Rowles & Rowles have made infrequent appearances together on recordings and in Los Angeles clubs. Their first recording as a duo was the Concord release “Tell It Like It Is.” Their most recent is the 1989 Delos album “Looking Back.” Another finished more than a year ago, including vocals from both Rowleses, is awaiting a label. The trumpeter has also played on a pair of her father’s combo albums that include bassist Red Mitchell and drummer Colin Bailey.

“He’s even written a [song] book for me. It’s got something like 250 charts in it,” she said, laughing. “There is something happening when we play. It’s like we know where the other is going at all times.”

Her musical relationship with her father is the most cherished part of her career, though nowhere near the most prevalent. But she gladly puts other facets of her career off to work with him.

“Right now, Dad is too much of a treasure to move away from,” she said. “I want to do as much as I can with him while we can. I have a biased opinion, of course, but he’s by far my favorite pianist.”

Rowles has no trouble staying busy outside of her infrequent collaboration with her father. She’s a long-standing member of Maiden Voyage, the all-female orchestra whose tour of Japan last fall will be repeated this year.

She and trombonist Betty O’Hara lead the JazzBirds, another all-female aggregation. Her most recent recording appearance is with the Swinging Ladies, yet another all-female combo, on “Take One” from the Germany-based Lynro Music Productions label.

She sees good and bad sides to gender-oriented bands.

“It doesn’t bother me. In fact, [all-female bands] are, sadly, still a necessity at this point,” she said. “It shouldn’t make a difference what sex you are as long as you’re a good musician. But there are still some people who do discriminate. It can be a vicious circle. You have to be hired to get experience, but you can’t get hired unless you have experience. Breaking through is the difficult part.

“In some places, though, the novelty [of all-female bands] has worn off, [and] it’s starting to get old. And that’s good.”

Rowles will be participating later this month in a project that crosses both gender and artistic-discipline lines--the Jazz Tap Ensemble, which performs at the John Anson Ford Theatre in Hollywood on June 24 before moving on to dates in New York City and Aspen, Colo.

She’s most looking forward to the next appearance with her father. That comes Labor Day weekend, at the Irvine Marriott Hotel Jazz Party.

“It’s hard sometimes to stay inspired,” she said. “but every once in a while you play a gig that rekindles your inspiration.”

* Stacy Rowles appears tonight with the Doug MacDonald Trio at Kikuya, 8052 Adams Ave., Huntington Beach, 8, 9:30 and 11 p.m. $10 minimum per person. (714) 536-6665.