New Drummer, Different Scofield Sound

Mild-mannered but musically combustive, John Scofield reigns in the minds of many as the top contemporary guitarist in jazz. Scofield paints with a broad brush, liberally drawing on a myriad of elements--funk, be-bop, straight-ahead and free playing--to get his points across.

When Scofield, 45, lands at Catalina Bar & Grill in Hollywood Tuesday through next Sunday, he’ll have a new drummer, Idris Muhammad. The guitarist finds that with the addition of Muhammad, who replaced Bill Stewart earlier this year, his band is more rhythmically robust than ever.

“Idris is a master of creating grooves, and he and [bassist] Dennis [Irwin] get this great swing thing happening,” says Scofield, whose latest album, “Groove Elation” (Blue Note), features Muhammad, Irwin and organist-pianist Larry Goldings, the same group that appears at Catalina’s. “So I’m playing more straight-ahead, more be-bop, including some new originals, which I call ‘modern jazz vehicles’ for lack of a better term.”

After years at Blue Note records, Scofield has just signed with Verve. “Both are great labels, but I felt I’d get greater support and distribution in Europe and Japan from Verve,” he says. He’ll make his first album for the label in March, playing acoustic and electric guitar in a format that spotlights horns. “I guess I’d call it a ‘romantic’ album but that doesn’t mean it will be all ballads.” Information: (213) 466-2210.

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Brother, Can You Spare a Horn?: The one thing that musicians need, other than work, are instruments. And now the youngsters in the jazz ensemble at Washington Preparatory High School need them more than most. On Nov. 10, not long after the band had won the Los Angeles Jazz Society’s 1995 Shelly Manne Memorial New Talent Award, vandals broke into the school’s band room, setting a fire that burned all the ensemble’s instruments.

So to get these youngsters back on the bandstand, a benefit will be held to raise funds to buy new instruments. Such local luminaries as Ernie Andrews, Gerald Wiggins, Bill Henderson, Larry Koonse and John Clayton will perform Sunday, from 2 to 6 p.m. at the Musicians Union Auditorium, 817 N. Vine St., Hollywood. Admission is $10, or an instrument. Information: (818) 347-3046, (213) 469-6800.

Banding Together: Cecilia Coleman, Paul Carman, Bennett Brandeis and Joey Sellers are young veterans of the L.A. jazz scene who, despite their considerable talent, have careers that are not flourishing as they’d like. They work steadily here, and they record, but to really make a good living, each needs to get consistent out-of-town employment. To foster more work on the road, the musicians have formed the Los Angeles Jazz Collective, an organization of four different bandleaders--rather than an all-star group--that pools the individual members’ work-getting skills for the betterment of the whole.

The Collective’s first presentation has been a series of Tuesdays at the Jazz Bakery. Guitarist Brandeis’ trio performed on Nov. 28, followed by saxophonist Carman’s quintet on Dec. 5. On Tuesday, it’s trombonist Sellers’ 12-piece Jazz Aggregation, and on Dec. 19, Coleman’s quintet. “We’re starting with this series and we’ll just have to see how it flies,” Coleman says.

Information: (310) 271-9039.

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Channel Surfing the Jazz Waves: When Billy Taylor appears this Sunday on “CBS Sunday Morning,” ab-libbing an intro to a segment on the great bassist Ray Brown, he celebrates more than 16 years of presenting a variety of jazz artists--from Cecil Taylor to Joshua Redman--on a major network.

“The show presents things that are offbeat, that don’t fit into other formats,” says Taylor, whose piece on Brown can be seen at 7:30 a.m. on Channel 2. “People watching may not know an artist, but they listen. I run into people everywhere who watch, like one at an airport, who said, ‘Hey, why didn’t that [Redman] guy go to law school? He would have been good.’ ”

Charles Osgood, the host of the program, is keen on Taylor. “He’s user-friendly when he talks about jazz, and letting us hear it,” Osgood says. “Billy calls jazz ‘America’s classical music,’ and it fits in with the other arts coverage we do.”

Free Music: Michael Wolff’s trio appears tonight, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, (213) 857-6000.