Composer Garfield Wants Harmony With Audience

David Garfield makes no bones about it: He’s a modern musician who cares about how listeners receive what he plays.

“It’s important to get people off with what I play,” says the 35-year-old keyboardist-composer, who plays tonight and Saturday at El Matador in Huntington Beach. “I always try to establish good audience rapport.”

Garfield readily admits that he likes be-bop and the mainstream acoustic music that succeeded it. After all, when asked for influences, the names that came first to the musician’s mind were McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett, men who established themselves in ‘60s.

But when he offers be-bop and the related styles in a public setting, Garfield, who is basically self-taught, takes his jazz foundation and mixes it with elements of rock, Latin, funk and R & B.

Take his treatment of Thelonious Monk’s classic blues, “Straight, No Chaser”:

“I do that almost like the (Southern rock) band Little Feat would,” said the St. Louis native, “using a New Orleans second-line parade beat. Or I might do another be-bop tune with a Latin rhythm, because people relate to that rhythm with their bodies. If we play be-bop with the traditional swing feel, then we don’t get to as many people. Straight-ahead sometimes is too cerebral.”

Garfield, who’s joined at El Matador by saxophonist Larry Klimas, drummer Tom Brechtlein and bassist Luther Hughes, learned as a teen-ager that achieving emotional depth was the goal of improvised music.

“When I was playing in clubs and jam sessions in St. Louis,” he said, “it was emphasized over and over by the mostly black musicians that I played with that it didn’t matter how much technique you had, but how much feeling.”

Garfield, a man with a diverse and rewarding career, came to Los Angeles right out of high school and was soon swimming in fast waters. He played with Latin singer-percussionist Willie Bobo, and then, in 1976, joined trumpeter-fluegelhornist Freddie Hubbard for two years. He toured with Hubbard and played on his “Bundle of Joy” album, which included two Garfield compositions.

After leaving Hubbard, Garfield--who plays be-bop with a hard-driving approach and has a sure sense of the rhythmic snap of funk--broadened his horizons. He started his own band, toured and entered Los Angeles recording studios (he’s recorded with Cher, Phil Perry and Brandon Fields). He was with Tom Scott in the early ‘80s and served as George Benson’s musical director.

Garfield’s primary focus these days is on his own projects: the David Garfield Quartet and his production company, Creatchy Productions, which has recorded Los Angeles groups for distribution in Japan. A U.S. distribution deal is in the works, he said.

What Garfield likes about the quartet is that it’s about trying to be an artist, where working for others is often about being a craftsman. “It’s really worthwhile to go out there and try to make a musical statement,” he said. “And it’s a chance for me to be featured. So often I’ve been like the guy backing everybody up.”

The energetic North Hollywood resident feels he’s had a very fortunate musical life. “Playing with the very best people on an almost daily basis, I’ve achieved everything I set out to do,” he said. “I just want to keep on making music that makes me happy, and I think I can make other people happy at the same time.”

Keyboardist David Garfield plays tonight at 9:30 and 11:30 p.m. at El Matador, 16903 Algonquin St., Huntington Beach. Admission: free. Also Saturday. Information: (714) 846-5337.