In the Philadelphia of saxophonist Carl Grubbs's youth, the musician held an undisputed place in the spectrum of cool.
"Philly had a whole community of young people," the 57-year-old Grubbs explained. "West Philly. North Philly. Germantown. We would get together to learn about the music."
They learned about technique, and also how to assume the proper pose. Think "Miles Davis," he said. "Cool. Sunglasses. Talking the hip slang and playing nice music to groove to."
If you were lucky, the older cats in the neighborhood would take a liking to you and teach you innovations that couldn't yet be found in music books.
Grubbs was a very lucky young man.
When he was 13, Grubbs paid an Easter weekend visit to his first cousin Naima at her apartment in New York. Her husband, a saxophonist named John Coltrane, had been working on a new composition, "Giant Steps," and he let young Carl and his older brother Earl listen in.
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The meeting inspired the brothers to focus seriously on music, and spawned Carl Grubbs's 43-year career.
"Throughout our career, he was always there, pointing us in the right direction," Grubbs said of Coltrane. "When he would come to town for work, we'd go to see him play even though we weren't old enough."
This weekend, the Carl Grubbs Quintet performs at Montpelier Cultural Arts Center in Laurel. Before the concert, Grubbs and another Coltrane cousin, Mary Alexander, will discuss Coltrane's life and legacy.
Relaxing in his Baltimore home with his latest disk, "Reflections," playing in the background, it's clear Grubbs still hasn't lost his cool. A gold musical note flashes from his left earlobe. His salt-and-pepper dreadlocks fall across his shoulders, and a Marlboro cigarette dangles between his fingers.
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Grubbs has needed Coltrane's lessons in order to prevail in a field that has endured many ups and downs, with low points such as the plague of drug abuse that claimed the lives of many jazz artists and a general loss of interest in the genre by a new generation of young people.
In North Philly in the 1960s, the Grubbs home was a magnet for local musicians who needed a place to practice the piano and hang out. Both Grubbs's parents played the piano and encouraged their sons to learn through school programs and private lessons.
By the time they reached their teenage years, they were playing professionally and going to school full time. With the full support of their parents, Grubbs and his brother Earl pursued careers in music after high school.
At the time, live jazz clubs abounded, especially in Philadelphia, and there was no shortage of gigs. "Practically every club had a live band," Grubbs recalled. "If you wanted to play, you could work every day. Once a week there was a jam session where you could sit in. It was a breeding ground for people who were interested in becoming a musician."
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The Grubbs brothers -- Carl on alto and soprano sax and the now-deceased Earl on tenor sax -- played in several bands, including the Guild of Contemporary Culture, the touring band for R&B singer Jerry Butler, and their own band, The Visitors.
As the live jazz scene dissipated in the early- to mid-1970s, the brothers recorded four albums for Muse Records. Grubbs was forced to do other things to make ends meet and support his first wife and four children, including working at a grocery store and substitute teaching.
After a divorce, Grubbs married Barbara Harrell in 1980 and moved to Baltimore, where she was a history teacher. He quickly became acquainted with the Washington and Baltimore jazz scenes, playing with the D.C. Jazz Workshop Orchestra and co-founding the now-defunct Maryland Center for Creative Music, which produced jazz shows on Baltimore's Inner Harbor and taught jazz to kids.
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Grubbs is also a former member of the critically acclaimed Julius Hemphill Saxophone Sextet and is currently an artist-in-residence at St. Paul's School in Brooklandville, Md. He and his wife also run Sax: Summer Music & Dance Camp to teach young people in the Baltimore area about jazz.
Today Grubbs's repertoire contains a heavy dose of Coltrane compositions, which by now he has become adept at making his own. On his forthcoming album, "Reflections," which he will release in November on his label B & C Productions, Grubbs has recorded a new rendition of the song he first heard Coltrane practice 43 years ago, "Giant Steps."
"To me it's always fresh and new," he said. "It's a searching kind of music. It isn't satisfied with doing one certain thing. It's really a search for perfection. You'll really can't reach there, but the fun is trying."
The Carl Grubbs Quintet performs at 8 p.m. tomorrow; pre-concert discussion with Grubbs and Mary Alexander at 7 p.m. at the Montpelier Cultural Arts Center, 12826 Laurel-Bowie Rd., Laurel. $15. 301-953-1993.
Saxophonist Carl Grubbs scaled the jazz scene in Philadelphia before more recently scoring gigs in Baltimore and Washington. He brings his Coltrane-influenced sound to Laurel tomorrow.
