Ray Drummond, a Peninsula resident and New York jazz star, makes a rare appearance at the Hyatt.

Ray Drummond isn’t trying to keep a low Peninsula profile on purpose. And yet plenty of locals might be unaware that one of the world’s greatest jazz bassists walks among them.

For the past five years he’s been an assistant professor of music at CSUMB, teaching theory, composition and improvisation. The reason he isn’t more visible around the region is that he’s racking up frequent-flier miles as a bi-coastal commuter. Most weeks, he spends Tuesday through Thursday in town and then jumps on a red-eye back to New York, where he’s a fixture in the city’s major clubs and concert halls.

“Last week I was at the Jazz Standard with the drummer Killer Ray Appleton’s tribute to Wes Montgomery,” says Drummond, who’s affectionately known as “Bulldog” by his friends. “This week I’ll be back home playing in Steve Wilson’s Generations band with Mulgrew Miller and Ben Riley. You’d be surprised at how quickly you can get used to five-and-a-half-hour flights.”

Fortunately for locals, Drummond is taking a break from his cross-country routine this week, and will be playing a three-night run at the Hyatt Regency Monterey with the house band led by drummer David Morwood. Thursday night they’re joined by pianist Marshall Otwell, a well-traveled veteran best known for his seven-year stint accompanying the legendary singer Carmen McRae. Friday the gifted Monterey pianist Eddie Mendenhall rounds out the trio, and Saturday features Santa Cruz-raised, Berkeley-based Sam Grobe-Heintz, a rising young player on the Bay Area scene.

With his thick, sturdy build, Drummond looks like central casting’s idea of a bass player. And with his huge, woody tone and compelling sense of swing, he’s the perfect man for the role. Indeed, it’s difficult to overstate Drummond’s stature in the jazz community. Since moving to New York City 30 years ago, he’s performed with just about every jazz great on the scene, while playing on more than 300 albums. An abbreviated list of his credits reads like jazz’s Hall of Fame, including Betty Carter, Woody Shaw, Hank Jones, Jon Faddis, Milt Jackson, Johnny Griffin, Kenny Barron, Stan Getz and George Coleman. Drummond is also a fine composer and a skilled bandleader who has recorded eight albums under his own name.

What’s not widely known is that Drummond has deep Peninsula roots. His family started settling in the area in the early 1960s, when his father was in the military. By the time the Drummonds moved into their house with their six children, Ray was heading down to Southern California to study at Claremont Men’s College (now Claremont McKenna College). While he was interested in music, he didn’t get serious about the bass until the early 1970s, when he was at Stanford University studying for an MBA. He ended up dropping out of business school after his first year and moving up to San Francisco to launch his career. Under the tutelage of the brilliant San Francisco reed player Jules Broussard, he quickly became a highly sought after accompanist.

“Those were my good old days,” Drummond says. “San Francisco was very different in the early ’70s. There were more clubs, and things weren’t as expensive, so you didn’t have to hustle the way musicians do now. The Blackhawk had closed, but there was El Matador, the Jazz Workshop, and I was in the first band at Keystone Korner, starting in 1972.”

Drummond’s career took a four-year detour in the mid-’70s when he moved down to Monterey to work in his father’s business fulfilling service contracts for the military. He continued to play, both locally and up in San Francisco, and he still fondly recalls Peninsula players he worked with back then, such as saxophonist Roger Eddy, pianists Bob Phillips and Ace Hill, and multi-instrumentalist Nick Williams. He also became a fixture at the Monterey Jazz Festival, both in the stands and on the stage. He and his wife started buying season tickets in 1973 and have kept it up all these years, using the event as a good excuse to visit his parents. His first year back after moving to New York, however, didn’t leave him much time to hang with the family.

“I came back in 1978 to play with Thad Jones and Mel Lewis,” Drummond recalls. “I wound up working with a whole bunch of groups. That was kind of startling, to be gone not a year and come back as a New York guy.”

While his schedule probably won’t allow too many opportunities to play at the Hyatt, Drummond is quick to give props to Morwood, who books the Hyatt, for keeping the jazz flame burning on the Peninsula. A plastic and reconstructive surgeon, Morwood is often self-deprecating about his trap set skills, but according to Drummond, “he really can play and really can swing. If he wasn’t the surgeon that he is, he probably could have had a career as a drummer.

“David always jokes and says that every time we play is a lesson for him, but I tell him that no matter how much experience we garner, we always look at ourselves as students.”  

RAY DRUMMOND plays at the Hyatt Regency Monterey’s Fireplace Lounge, 1 Old Golf Course Rd. in Monterey, Thursday through Saturday, at 7pm with David Morwood’s trio. There’s no cover charge. Call 372-1234.