Chuck Greenberg; Leader of Eclectic Band Shadowfax

Chuck Greenberg, co-founder, leader and record producer of the eclectic band Shadowfax, has died at the age of 45.

Greenberg died Monday, apparently of a heart attack, while vacationing with his family on Santa Cruz Island off Ventura County, Sonic Images Records announced Thursday night.

The sextet, which Greenberg originally organized with G.E. Stinson, Phil Maggini and Stu Nevitt in an Illinois farmhouse in 1972, won a Grammy in 1988 for its album “Folk Songs for a Nuclear Village” and was nominated for another one in 1992 for “Esperanto.” Greenberg also recorded a successful solo record in 1991 titled “From a Blue Planet.”

Greenberg, who did much of the group’s composing, played saxophone, flute and piccolo and an instrument he helped to refine and popularize, the lyricon. Describing it as a “woodwind synthesizer,” Greenberg made the novel instrument central in the sound of Shadowfax.

Labeled New Age after the term was coined a few years ago, the band’s music has also been called world beat and has always been hard to categorize.

The Times’ late jazz expert Leonard Feather once described the multidisciplined sound as “American, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, European, incorporating classical, rock, folk and (minimally) jazz, variously acoustic and electric.”

Amused that the group had landed on both jazz and pop charts while considering their ensemble music neither, Greenberg told The Times in 1984: “We’ve always just tried to do music that we liked, without making any concerted effort to become a commercial success.”

The band’s unusual name was selected by Greenberg and Maggini while leafing through a book by J.R.R. Tolkien. Shadowfax was the name of Gandalf the wizard’s horse in “Lord of the Rings,” Greenberg later explained, “and it had a nice image to it, so we all said yeah.”

The band recorded 10 albums and a greatest-hits package. A recording of “Shadowfax Live” from a recent concert in Santa Cruz was released in July, and a video is to be available Nov. 7.

In years when the band was out of favor, Greenberg found work with session groups making sound tracks.

Known as a gourmet chef in his non-music-making hours, Greenberg won blue ribbons at the San Luis Obispo County Fair for his plum jam for the past three years.

He is survived by his wife, Joy; three young sons, Maceo, Gian and Greg; his mother, Janice Stein, a brother and two sisters.

A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sept. 16 at the Wild Horse Winery in Templeton, Calif.

The family has asked that any memorial contributions be sent to the Chuck Greenberg Memorial Fund, in care of attorney Steven R. Lowy, 8444 Wilshire Blvd., 8th Floor, Beverly Hills, Calif. 90211, for the benefit of Greenberg’s children.