For Dale Fielder, the Challenging Path Is Straight Ahead

Saxophonist Dale Fielder was recently talking to a fellow in his early 20s, explaining why he’d picked as his mode of expression straight-ahead jazz, rather than the more contemporary and lucrative smooth jazz style.

“I’m not into this for the money or to be a star,” Fielder, 42, said. “This is a calling; this is my passion. I want to play the highest form of music there is, basically challenging myself.”

And jazz is definitely a challenge. Like many others, Fielder, a grounded yet exploratory player, has a day job--he’s an administrative assistant--that allows him to afford his passion for jazz.

“A lot of that is due to the nature of the music I play,” he said. “Not that many people are into” straight-ahead acoustic jazz.

Fielder, a native of East Liverpool, Ohio, developed his penchant growing up in Pittsburgh, where he played with the legendary Joe Harris, a former Dizzy Gillespie and Sonny Rollins drummer.

Fielder has lived in Los Angeles since the late ‘80s and has made several CDs--”Short Forms” is his latest. He appears regularly in such Los Angeles clubs as 5th Street Dick’s and Lunaria. He plays with his quartet on Wednesday at Restaurant Kikuya in Huntington Beach.

That quartet, together almost four years, consists of pianist Jane Getz, bassist Bill Markus and drummer Thomas White, the same crew that recorded “Short Forms” at Steamers Cafe in Fullerton in March. The album contains engaging, invigorating originals written for his band and “designed as launching pads into the improvisations,” Fielder said.

“I wanted to have the writing advance the improvisations, make things flow better,” he said. “Improvisation is what jazz is all about. These pieces offer the soloist a lot of freedom. You can play almost anything you want to, and it will work.”

Tunes include “Mode d’Coltrane” and “Brandywine,” both of which use shorter than usual structures. “A shorter form like this, as opposed to [what] you find in most standards, is a springboard to the thought processes,” said Fielder, who as a player can be as intimate as Hank Mobley and as bold as John Coltrane. “It makes it easier to keep the ideas coming in a solo.”

Having a working band--they first played together on New Year’s Day 1995--allows the music to develop and leads to innovation, he said.

“Jane is my musical soul mate,” he said. “The way we think about music is exactly alike. Bill has great endurance, [so he] gets even better as the night goes on. He really gives me the foundation. Tom is one of the most innovative drummers on the West Coast. He uses the right amount of force and sensitivity. I can hear myself think with him.”

Things have been good for Fielder. Last year he toured Korea and went back last month, playing to 2,500 people at a large Seoul hotel. And he’s planning his next album--a tribute to alto saxophonist Art Pepper.

“I just got a new alto, and I have been listening to some alto players, and one was Art. I’ve always dug him,” said Fielder, who played a Pepper program Monday night at the Jazz Bakery in Culver City.

Fielder’s progress brings him nearer to his straightforward goals. “I’d just like to make a good living,” he said, “and to try to add to the jazz canon.”

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* Dale Fielder’s Quartet plays Wednesday at Restaurant Kikuya, 8052 Adams Ave., Huntington Beach. 7:30 p.m. $10 minimum. (714) 536-6665.