Jamming From the Start : Jazz: Red Holloway, in O.C. this weekend, has been an integral promoter and player on the Southland scene.

Saxophonist Red Holloway remembers the day he joined the Southern California jazz scene. It was the first Monday after he arrived in Los Angeles in late September 1967, and it’s memorable because he joined a jam session at a hopping club known as the Parisian Room.

Born in Arkansas and raised in Chicago, Holloway already had made something of a name for himself as a spirited saxophonist. He had worked with the bands of Gene Wright and Roosevelt Sykes in the 1940s, started leading his own combos in the 1950s and was heard with any number of R&B; bands around Chicago. In 1963, he joined organist Jack McDuff’s combo, which at the time included an upstart guitarist by the name of George Benson.

Holloway, one of the headliners at the three-day West Coast Jazz Party coming to the Irvine Marriott hotel this weekend, will be reunited with McDuff on Friday evening. He also appears Saturday at Steamers Cafe in Fullerton.

Working with organ trios had become something of a specialty for the saxophonist. On his first visit to Los Angeles in 1962, he was traveling with organist Bill Doggett. Then after leaving McDuff early in 1966, he tried his hand in New York, then returned to Chicago, where not much was happening on the jazz scene.

Remembering the balmy weather out on the coast, he decided to stake his fortune in California.

“Being from Chicago and all, I found it was quite a change,” Holloway said in a recent interview from his Cambria home on the California coast. “It’s like they say: The weather suited my clothes.”

It happened that he stayed with relatives who owned a motel across the street from the Parisian Room, a now-defunct nightclub at the corner of La Brea and Washington boulevards.

“At the time, it was a drive-in restaurant and nightclub,” he recalled. “My first night in town I went over to see what was going on. Sure enough, they had an organ trio.”

It was jam night Monday, and fortunately for the then 40-year-old musician, organist Terry Lee needed a saxophonist for the house band. On the strength of his performance that night, Holloway got the job.

When Lee took her organ trio out on the road, however, she didn’t have the money to bring the saxophonist. So when the booking agent at the Parisian Room had a heart attack, management asked Holloway, now a club regular, to take over. For the next 15 years, he brought the biggest names in jazz to the club.

“When I started, they didn’t charge [admission], and I was using every act I could find,” Holloway said. “I had singers Lorez Alexandria and Ernie Andrews in there, and I brought in comedians and magicians and even a belly dancer. But my wish was to bring in some big names.”

He finally convinced the club owners to charge a cover to pay for big-name acts. His first signing was vocalist Abbey Lincoln.

“The fellow who was Abbey’s agent then was Famous Amos, although he wasn’t selling cookies yet,” Holloway said. “We charged a $3 cover and brought in enough money to pay Abbey’s salary. After the owners saw that, they said, ‘Go ahead, bring in anybody you want.’ ”

Holloway proceeded to put the Parisian Room on the jazz world map, leading the house band and bringing in such notables as saxophonist Sonny Stitt, James Moody and Richie Cole, singers Carmen McRae, Johnny Hartman and Eddie Jefferson, trumpeter Harry “Sweets” Edison and guitarist Kenny Burrell.

Drummer Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers played the club, as did trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie’s band. Holloway played with them all, forming many lasting associations, including those with Stitt, Edison saxophonist Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis and trumpeter Clark Terry.

Then on July 4, 1982, Holloway decided to take some time for himself.

“I had worked there all those years, six nights a week, until 1:30 or 2 a.m. I’d been playing with Sonny [Stitt]; we had started traveling together in 1977. [Bassist] Ray Brown was booking us in various places, Europe and all, so I was ready for a change.”

Holloway has recorded for a number of labels since departing the Parisian Room (which went defunct a few years after his leaving), including Concord Jazz, High Note, the European label Steeple Chase and, most recently, Chiaroscuro, which is set to release his latest effort, “Standing Room Only” this month.

He plays mostly abroad in Europe and Japan these days, saying he doesn’t see the same opportunities for today’s young musicians as he did in 1967.

“There just isn’t much happening today in Los Angeles. When I came to town, the record industry was going full time, there were clubs to play, musicians could get jobs as extras in the movies. This used to be a fun place. Now it’s all changed. And it’s kind of sad.”

Holloway, who has played with McDuff over the years, said the two will have no trouble clicking Friday at the jazz festival.

“We recorded with George Benson last year,” he said. “We started playing some of the songs we used to play and it fell right together, as if we’d never left each other.”

* Red Holloway plays Friday at the West Coast Jazz Party, Irvine Marriott hotel, 1800 Von Karman Ave.; 7 p.m. The festival runs through Sunday. Tickets are $48-$60 daily; $200-$250 for three-day, priority seating. (949) 724-3602. Holloway appears with bassist Richard Reid, drummer Paul Humphrey and pianist Art Hillery on Saturday at Steamers Cafe, 138 W. Commonwealth Ave., Fullerton; 8:30 p.m. $5. (714) 871-8800.