Jazz Los Angeles

William Marcell “Buddy” Collette has never been one to toot his own horn, but at 84 he’s making plenty of noise. A cornerstone of L.A.’s Central Avenue jazz scene during the ‘40s and ‘50s, the Watts native took his contemplative saxophone sound to the front lines of bebop and the moody West Coast style and helped desegregate the music industry during the ‘50s and ‘60s. Collette has moved with ease between jazz education and composition, not to mention his classical oeuvre. Designated a Los Angeles Living Cultural Treasure by the city in the late ‘90s, he still composes for JazzAmerica, a band of teen virtuosos he co-founded. After a stroke in the late ‘90s, Collette learned to play the piano with one hand and conduct with the other; the Buddy Collette Big Band, fronted by Collette in a wheelchair, performs at the LAX Four Points Sheraton hotel on Sept. 29. The Ladera Heights resident took time from work on a live CD and a multimedia “musical autobiography” for some inspired improvisation.

Your fellow L.A. jazzmen like Charlie Mingus, and your students such as Eric Dolphy and Charles Lloyd, forged their careers from New York. Do you ever regret not leaving L.A. with them?

I don’t have any regrets. I am more than a saxophone player and a good musician. I said, “I’ll stay and help build L.A.” And it’s paid off. I helped break the [music industry] color line. I want people to get along, and for L.A. to be a place where they realize the talent in the arts. If I had to do it over, I’d do it again. People hug you and say, “Thanks for staying here.” That’s [worth] more than a million dollars to me sometimes.

What was it like being the only black player in white bands?

I was one of the first African Americans in “The Tonight Show” band. Some white players had never worked with a black player. It changed a lot of people. We integrated the Academy Awards, too. It was 1963, when Sidney Poitier won. We were going to picket that thing. I was in the band, [and] Bill Green and harpist Toni Robinson-Bogart.

You’ve seen jazz go from being a viable career in L.A.’s jazz heyday to being a field where work is scarce. How does the jazz landscape look to you now?

It’s still going, but [to] the public it doesn’t look like it. There’s no music in the schools, so we have to teach kids where we can find them. We are building the jazz stars of the future. With JazzAmerica, we’ve got three big bands, about 60 young people from different local high schools. It’s like planting a garden.

Hip-hop seems to be the choice for many young musicians right now.

Hip-hop will not make a musician out of you. It will make you a rhythmic player. Some hip-hop players are sampling stuff from jazz. But I don’t hear real creativity, good melodies. In their minds they’re not going to make any money writing anything worthwhile, because we didn’t make any. But [money’s] not the end of the story.

What can you tell us about your “musical autobiography” project?

I’ve been working on this all my life. It’s pouring out of me now. I’ve got a couple hundred original tunes in songbooks.

Some artists succumb to addiction and other demons. What would you call the prime factor in a long life of creativity?

Dedication and love for what you are doing. And also the things you’ve learned from the giants like [saxophone wizard] Mr. Benny Carter, who came out from New York, loved it out here and wanted to be creative and help us. These people change your life. If I hadn’t met him and people like [composer-arranger] Spud Murphy, I might have gone off the deep end. Some don’t get to meet people like this.

You celebrated your 84th birthday last month with one jazz performance after another. Do you have any words of wisdom for us?

You are never happy when the world is in turmoil. But there is always something you can do. When ugly things are happening and people are hating one another, do something positive. Whether it is in the yard, in your garden, or making art or music, just make the world beautiful and get along.

Are there perks for an L.A. cultural treasure? Do you get free parking?

Free parking would be nice. I was never a guy who was looking for stuff.