Jazz festival salutes saxaphonist Baltazar

By Joseph Rothstein
Special to The Advertiser

Gabe Baltazar cites Artie Shaw as a favorite during his early years, when Baltazar and friends jammed together at parties. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser The Hawaii International Jazz Festival Concerts, post-concert jam sessions, student workshops Concerts dates July 19-21, 7 p.m., Blaisdell Concert Hall – July 19, Hawaiian Jazz Night; July 20 and 21, Tribute to Stan Kenton, parts 1 and 2 July 22, 4 p.m., McKinley Auditorium – Parade of the Big Bands and Tribute to Gabe Baltazar Tickets: $120 for four nights or $20, $30, $40 per night; discounts for seniors, students, military. Ticket Plus outlets or 526-4400. Information: Jazz Festival office, 941-9974

It has been years since the Hawai'i-born alto sax virtuoso settled back in the Islands after an illustrious career of performing, recording and television work. But when he takes the stage of the newly renovated McKinley High School auditorium as a featured soloist with the eighth Hawaii International Jazz Festival, he'll be returning to the beginning of a road that took him all over the world.

"There was a band teacher at McKinley named Mrs. Emma Lou Drake," he recalled recently over lunch. "She had been in the WAC, the Women's Auxiliary Corps, and she was like a little drill sergeant. I was one of the rotten eggs in the band, always giving the teachers a hard time and she made me stay after school. She made me learn solos, and I played clarinet while she accompanied me on the piano."

Baltazar had played clarinet in the Washington Intermediate School band — "mostly Sousa marches and arrangements of opera melodies." But Drake, the drill sergeant, had him learn standard classical repertoire by Mozart and Webern, then made the young musician enter a contest. It was the Interlochen Music Camp scholarship contest, sponsored by the Honolulu Lions Club. Baltazar represented McKinley High and won a scholarship for a summer of study at the prestigious Michigan music center.

It was 1947, the summer of his junior year and Baltazar represented the Territory of Hawai'i. "It was a city of music," Baltazar remembers, "and music got hold of me so strong that I decided that's what I wanted to do."

Improvisation is the heart and soul of jazz, but it was something that Gabe came upon almost by accident. "I was playing my clarinet and I played a phrase that wasn't on the music sheet and it felt pretty good, you know. And that was the beginning of my love of improvising," he said.

Baltazar's father was an alto saxophonist and young Gabe found himself drawn to the instrument, as well. "Before and during World War II, many of the leading big bands played in Hawai'i," Gabe said. "Artie Shaw used to come to Hawai'i with his band and play dance halls. He was my favorite, and after I went to hear him, I learned all the solos from his records, just by sounding them out by ear, note for note."

Like many of his jazz contemporaries, Baltazar learned his craft by seizing every chance he got to play. "A bunch of us McKinley boys would play parties every weekend, dances and then as the night got later, just jamming. On a typical Saturday night we'd start off playing a party in 'Aiea," he recalled, "then on to another in Pearl City, then jump in the car for a late-night party in Waipahu. After that, we'd drive all the way up to Kahuku and jam well into the next day before catching a couple hours of sleep and driving back to town. It's no wonder we could barely keep our eyes open in class on Monday morning," he added with a laugh.

After graduating from McKinley, Baltazar joined the Army and played in the U.S. Army Band from 1951 to 1954, stationed at Fort Belvoir, Va. The G.I. Bill took him to Los Angeles City College, one of the few college jazz programs in the country at that time. While in California, he had an opportunity to audition for the Stan Kenton big band.

"I had seen him in a newsreel when I was a teenager and then he had come and played at Fort Belvoir when I was stationed there, but I never dreamed that I might play in his band," Gabe recalled. "So then I was at City College and got a call to audition for Stan. I got the job and that was the beginning of my career." (Kenton is being honored with a special night of music at the Hawaii International Jazz Festival featuring his former band members July 22 at the Blaisdell Concert Hall.)

And what a career it has been. Baltazar served as lead alto saxophone for the Kenton band throughout its heyday in the 1960s. Many jazz aficionados consider his signature solo number, "Stairway to the Stars," the definitive version of that jazz classic. It's one Baltazar recorded with the Kenton band and one he has performed hundreds of times.

In 1969, he decided it was time to return to Hawai'i, where he served as deputy bandmaster of the Royal Hawaiian Band until 1985, interrupted by frequent Mainland and European gigs, recordings and studio work.

"Now that I'm retired, I can look back and have no regrets," he said. "I have a pension from the state, I travel to gigs now and then, and I get to work with the best musicians in Hawai'i, as well as musicians who come here for events like the Jazz Festival."

Baltazar's musical partnership with pianist Betty Loo Taylor has become a local legend, and he cites Noel Okimoto and Benny Reitveldt of the Jazz Festival's "house band," the Out Takes, as some of the young cats who keep him tuned in to the latest developments in jazz.

Baltazar's take on his starring role at this year's Jazz Festival is typical of his modest, low-key approach to life.

"I hear that some of my McKinley classmates are going to do a little something for me before the show, and then I'll play with some of the other Kenton Band alumni who are coming to town," he said. "It should be fun."

At his day gig, composer Joseph Rothstein is a financial advisor.