In The News

Here's some: Gary Lefebvre's a top tier saxman, 'Great on each instrument he plays'

June 25, 2006

It was only a few years after he and Frank Zappa, his friend in the Mission Bay High School marching band, began trading “weird chords” on the piano that Gary LeFebvre started earning attention as one of the region's most promising young jazz artists.

JOHN GASTALDO / Union-Tribune Saxophone stalwart Gary LeFebvre will celebrate his 50th anniversary as a professional musician with a Dec. 6 concert at Dizzy's, downtown San Diego, where he'll be joined by several local jazz luminaries.

LeFebvre, now 67, this year celebrates his 50th anniversary as a professional musician. While he no longer needs to practice regularly, he recalls feeling guilty in his younger years if he didn't devote enough time to his craft.

“When I was learning, I'd put in 8 to 12 hours a day, for four years straight,” said LeFebvre, whose imposing physique makes him look more like a retired NFL star. “Now, it's a mental attitude. When I get on the bandstand, I know what I need to do and just draw on it.”

Born in Ohio, LeFebvre was just 7 when he began playing alto sax, after attending a Duke Ellington concert. He moved here with his family at 13, and began studying clarinet with the San Diego Symphony's Daniel Magnusson. After debuting with the symphony at 17, he played in one of the city's top young jazz bands, along with pianist Mike Wofford, trumpeter Don Sleet and drum wiz John Guerin.

“I've been a fan of Gary's forever,” said top San Diego bassist Bob Magnusson, whose father taught LeFebvre. “He's really one of the great bebop saxophonists, and he doesn't get enough recognition.”

But unlike some other local legends, LeFebvre quickly made an impact beyond San Diego (where he spent his teen years and has lived since the late 1980s).

At 19, he moved to Los Angeles, where – his first day there – he was hired to play in noted vibraphonist Terry Gibbs' Dream Band. Because LeFebvre was underage, Gibbs became his legal guardian.

The budding saxophonist soon joined Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All Stars, after which he worked with such jazz luminaries as Shorty Rogers, Red Norvo, Stan Kenton, Chet Baker and Louie Bellson.

During a two-year stint at L.A.'s Coconut Grove nightclub, LeFebvre accompanied everyone from Ella Fitzgerald and Judy Garland to The Supremes and, um, Mrs. Miller. (“She sang horribly!” he recalled with a chuckle of the pitch-challenged Mrs. Miller. “The conductor told us she didn't mind the audience laughing at her, but she really minded if the musicians did. So we didn't.”)

“Gary's able to adapt to any situation, and he's great on each instrument he plays” said Hollman, whose big band often features LeFebvre on alto, tenor and baritone sax. “But he's not very industrious, in terms of getting out there and promoting himself.”

That may be why LeFebvre, who briefly lived and worked in Europe in the mid-1980s, has only made two solo albums. The first, 1985's “Another Time, Another Place,” featured members of Miles Davis and Chick Corea's bands. It has just been reissued by LeFebvre on CD, with a live bonus track, and stands nicely along his 2000 album, “Some Other Time.”

“Sometimes, I think about going back to Europe,” said LeFebvre, who plays about four gigs a month here and laments a lack of work for his all-star local big band. “The audiences over there are more responsive, no doubt about it.”

 George Varga: (619) 293-2253; george.varga@uniontrib.com