George Cables

Tom Scott is an exhilarating jazz-fusion saxophonist whose career of more than 25 years has been anchored by the nearly 20 solid R&B-based albums he has under his belt. Wild Cherry's 1976 hit "Play That Funky Music (White Boy)" could have been written about him. Now the same Tom Scott is here with "Born Again," a dazzling mainstream jazz album on GRP.

On a recent Thursday night on the bandstand of the Loa jazz club, Ray Brown smiled and swayed as he played his upright bass. He wasn't the only one who was happy. In the crowded, intimate Santa Monica nightspot, the audience appeared to be having a great time. As Brown's trio--sparked by earthy pianist Gene Harris and drummer Jeff Hamilton-- got down , people smiled, rocked back and forth in their chairs, clapped their hands and tapped their feet in time to the music.

What is a jazz saxophonist to do? Every time these poor souls pick up their horns to play, they must confront an internal rush of auditory images from Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins and John Coltrane, among others. How to love and accept these noble predecessors without becoming totally captivated within their musical webs?

Jimmy Cheatham, the San Diego trombonist who leads the Sweet Baby Blues Band with wife, Jeannie, a vocalist and pianist, will make a rare appearance before a San Diego audience next Wednesday, putting the UC San Diego Jazz Ensemble through its paces in a show at Mandeville Auditorium on campus. Cheatham is a professor of music at UCSD, directing the jazz program. Can San Diegans expect to hear him play? "They'll hear me play the orchestra," joked Cheatham, who wants the jazz program at UCSD to be "strongly based in the black musical experience, the Kansas City style, from Bennie Moten to Count Basie and Fletcher Henderson, from Ellington to Thad Jones."

It used to be said that when a jazz player was employing rock or other non-jazz elements in his or her music in order to reach a wider audience, the musician was "crossing over." Hence the label, "crossover artist." These days, the phrase could also be applied to jazz musicians who are writing for the screen. A long list of improvisers who compose for movies includes John Williams--in the '50s, he was the L.A.-based pianist known as Johnny Williams--Tom Scott, Mark Isham and Terence Blanchard.

*** 1/2 MIKE FAHN "Steppin' Out" Cexton CR2288 Here are four extraordinary musicians who deserve more acclaim than they have earned. Fahn is without question one of the few contemporary masters of the valve trombone. Patitucci, of course, has distinguished himself with Chick Corea playing both acoustic and electric bass with equal dexterity. He is also a composer of great promise and was responsible for five originals in this set.

The evolution of string groups in jazz has been a checkered story. The trouble usually is that you can lead a fiddle to the jazz group, but you can't make it swing. Except for the occasional violin soloist (Joe Venuti, Stuff Smith, Stephane Grappelli and a dozen others), string players (except, of course, those who played string bass primarily in its rhythm function) have shown themselves largely incapable of capturing the improvisational essence common to the great horn artists.

"Life is beautiful, you dig ?" The phrase is the connecting thread that runs through a conversation with alto saxophonist Frank Morgan, who'll play tonight with pianist Kenny Barron at the Hyatt Newporter in Newport Beach. For Morgan, who says he's "58 going on 19," things do seem to be going exceptionally well. He has just returned from performances at the Montreal Jazz Festival; he's been playing concert halls in both Europe and the United States this year.

Singer Betty Bennett, whose early career included performances with the bands of Stan Kenton, Woody Herman and Charlie Barnet, makes her first recording in more than 30 years Tuesday and Wednesday at Jim Mooney's Sage and Sound studio in Hollywood. "I've been terribly sheltered," the jazz singer quips.