With horn in hand, Jon Faddis is back in jazz's forefront

By Bill Beuttler, Globe Correspondent

Jon Faddis seems to spend more time directing orchestras these days than he does playing trumpet. Which makes the release this summer of his album "Teranga" -- and the tour supporting it that will bring him to Scullers tomorrow and Friday -- something special.

Faddis, 53, burst onto the jazz scene nearly 35 years ago and was hailed as a second coming of Dizzy Gillespie. He was a just-out-of-high-school kid who joined phenomenal technique with an amiable, audience-friendly personality. No less an authority than Gillespie himself declared Faddis "the best ever -- including me!"

Faddis's trumpeting is no less phenomenal now, but his directing various large ensembles -- he currently leads the Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble -- limits his opportunities to show it off.

"As my wife tends to remind me," Faddis says during a recent tour stop in Atlanta, "one of the things that I do when I'm leading a big band is I tend to shine the spotlight on other members, more so than myself."

Faddis is far more comfortable in the spotlight now than he used to be. After roaring through apprenticeships in the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra and groups led by Lionel Hampton, Charles Mingus, and Gil Evans, Faddis spent most of his 20s supporting himself as a studio musician. This was in the late '70s and early '80s, a period in which work was scarce for most young straight-ahead jazz players. But Faddis says he could have been an exception.

"I was actually approached by [legendary producer] Norman Granz to put together a group and to go on the road," Faddis says. "But I think more than anything it was my own fear -- or fears, plural -- that kept me from going out and getting my own group and trying to live up to all of the pressures I felt at the time of being the next trumpet player. And studio music was, I guess, a pretty convenient escape from that."

So instead of taking on the role Wynton Marsalis would assume a few years later -- the young man with the horn calling people back to undiluted jazz -- Faddis began popping up in low-profile roles on high-profile albums by the likes of Frank Sinatra, the Rolling Stones, Luther Vandross, and Billy Joel, among many others. His horn was heard, too, on "The Cosby Show" theme, the soundtracks to the Clint Eastwood films "The Gauntlet" and "Bird " and on countless commercials.

A White House appearance with Gillespie in 1982 brought Faddis's attention back to live performance and, within a year, he was leading a combo that included saxophonist Greg Osby and pianist James Williams. His work leading big bands began with a celebration of Gillespie's 70th birthday in 1987, which eventually led to a decade-long run leading the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, the group that in 2003 evolved into the Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra.

Faddis maintained a quartet all along. For the past several years it's consisted of pianist David Hazeltine, bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa, and drummer Dion Parson. But he hasn't put out an album with one since 1991. The decision to shift gears and record "Teranga", Faddis says, is "not a conscious move to do more small-group playing, but it's a more conscious move to do something in my own direction, do more of my own music."

Hazeltine, for one, is glad to see Faddis doing so. "I've always encouraged him to play his original material," says Hazeltine, who's been playing with Faddis for about a decade. "He's got a lot of great compositions lying around."

All but one tune on the new disc are written by Faddis. They include a graceful waltz dedicated to jazz saxophonist Michael Brecker and his ongoing struggle against a life-threatening illness ("Waltz for My Fathers & Brothers"), a song paying tribute via high-note trumpet pyrotechnics to "some very, very important women in [Faddis's] life" ("The Hunters & Gatherers"), a bebop burner honoring Faddis pal and pianist Kenny Barron ("The Baron"), a ballad with guest guitarist Russell Malone celebrating Faddis's wife ("Laurelyn"), and a blues, featuring the comic mumbling of guest trumpeter Clark Terry ("The Fibble-Ow Blues").

Guest percussionists Abdou M'boup and Alioune Faye join the quartet for the album's West African-accented title track, whose meaning Faddis finds particularly significant.

"It's more than just a word," he explains. "It's a Senegalese way of life. It's sort of, I guess, a great manifestation of the golden rule. It's something started by the mothers in Senegal, ensuring that their children will not ever be without, or wanting. And the way it works is that if strangers come and ask for a favor or anything, you take them in and treat them as family. And that will ensure that when their children are somewhere else, they can be taken in and treated as family."