For Harrell, music soothes and inspires

It's fine with Tom Harrell that his quintet gig in Marblehead tomorrow night will take place in the town's Unitarian Universalist Church.

''I always like to play in churches," he says by phone from Manhattan. ''I become more centered, and I realize that in a sense the entire universe is a church. When I first played in a church in New York with [saxophonist] Arnie Lawrence, it had a very purifying effect on me."

Harrell's discomfort on bandstands is well-documented. Harrell, who turned 59 last week, is routinely ranked among the best trumpeters and composers of his generation. But he is also afflicted with schizophrenia, and the disease makes being onstage tougher for him than for other musicians. And yet, when the time comes to play, he is inevitably transformed.

''Harrell shuffles out of the darkness and onto the stage, where the four members of his band wait, and he begins shaking," Jonathan Eig wrote in a 1998 profile of Harrell for Esquire. ''His eyebrows twitch. His lips smack. He stares at the ground, trying hard not to make eye contact with his audience. He doesn't want to give the voices or the hallucinations a chance to pop back into his head. 'I apologize for my lack of charisma,' he once told a club full of people."

Harrell's tendency toward withdrawal isn't limited to the stage. ''Things can overstimulate him if there's a lot going on, or a lot of people in a room," says Xavier Davis, who was Harrell's pianist for more than eight years. ''So sometimes he'll walk to a corner of the room and just face the wall, just to kind of get away from everything. But when he knows you he's actually pretty funny. When you start talking to him about something he's really into -- usually music -- he opens up, and he's got a great memory. He's very witty. Very quick."

In fact, he can be downright loquacious, with a memory that's awesome for its detail. Harrell doesn't merely recall having his dad take him to see Louis Armstrong perform a half-century ago. He'll tell you that Billy Kyle, Edmond Hall, and Trummy Young were in Armstrong's band that night. Ask him how Hank Jones, who recorded a version of Harrell's ''Because I Love You" on his new CD, became acquainted with Harrell's work, and he'll rattle off the details of several semi-ancient connections.

''I first met Hank when we played a gig with Chuck Israel's big band at the New School in 1975, '76," Harrell begins. ''And I did a small group thing with him I was lucky to do, and he complimented my playing then. Plus I think probably the fact that I had recorded in 1975 at Rudy Van Gelder's. We played a composition of mine with Idris Muhammad on the 'House of the Rising Sun' LP, Kudo Records, entitled 'Sudan,' co-composed by Idris Muhammad and myself. Roland Hanna was the piano player on that recording session." And maybe Jones first heard about Harrell from Hanna, he continues, and -- well, you get the idea.

But if you ask whether he's prouder of his composing or his soloing, he demurs.

''To me, the difference between composing and improvising is that, well" -- he laughs -- ''there is no difference, basically. An improviser is by definition a composer.

''All the great improvisers are also great composers," Harrell continues. ''[John] Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Ornette Coleman, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Lee Morgan, Fats Navarro, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk -- they're all great composers as well as players. It's true sometimes players are known more for their interpretations of other people's music. But they're also composers. When they improvise, it's composition, even though it's not notated. The conventional way of thinking may not be that it's composition, but once an improviser starts improvising, it becomes composition."

Harrell may not look like he enjoys himself onstage, but he relishes the opportunity to spontaneously create music.

''Spontaneity is the most important thing," he says. ''I love playing in the moment, and in a concert situation especially, because for one thing you have the interplay with the audience."

Tom Harrell performs at Marblehead Summer Jazz 2005 tomorrow at 8 p.m. Tickets $25 in advance, $27 at the door. Unitarian Universalist Church, 28 Mugford St., Marblehead. Call 781-631-1528 or visit www.marbleheadjazz.org.

Jazz for kids: Youngsters will be getting a hands-on introduction to jazz via call-and-response, singing, scatting, and dancing at Zeitgeist Gallery Sunday afternoon, when Hayes Greenfield's Jazz-A-Ma-Tazz makes its Boston area debut. The program is aimed at families and kids ages 3 and up, and no instruments are required. Showtime is 2 p.m. Admission is $8. Call 617-876-6060 or visit www.zeitgeist-gallery.org.