By Rob Hochschild
Berklee.edu Editor
March 2001

	Photo by Liz Linder

Perhaps it was destiny. After all, how many alto saxophonists can say they received their first instrument, free of charge, from a complete stranger? When Chris Carbajal was in 9th grade, he decided he wanted to play alto, and before long, his mother stumbled upon one at a garage sale near their home in southern California. At first, the seller asked for one hundred dollars, but when he discovered it was for a student, he removed the price tag and handed it to the musician's mom.

"It was a real nice sax," Carbajal, 20, says. "And it came with nice mouthpieces, like a "Meyer 5, New York model. It was a fitting accessory for a musician who would soon find himself listening nonstop to Cannonball Adderley, the alto giant who put the Meyer 5 on the map. "I had played tenor until then, but alto was a much more natural sound for me."

Carbajal's father, a pianist and recording engineer, exposed his son to music at a very young age, starting him on piano lessons at the age of 5, and bringing him to his studio in Burbank, Calif., to watch and listen to recording sessions. It was in that studio that the young Carbajal first heard a professional saxophone player.

"The guy was killing, and I knew that I wanted to learn how play that instrument,'" Carbajal says.

While in high school, Carbajal spent a lot of his free time listening to jazz, absorbing the music of contemporary alto players like Kenny Garrett and Vincent Herring. But there was no jazz program at his high school, and the budding musician never imagined he would be able to master the kind of music Garrett and Herring were playing.

Serendipity struck again one day in a coffee shop. Carbajal had his saxophone with him as he stepped in for a beverage. Later, one of his fellow coffee patrons approached him and they started talking music. Carbajal and the man, a saxophonist and Berklee graduate named Matt Zebley, became friends, and he started giving the younger saxophonist lessons. Zebley, who is a member of the Brian Setzer Orchestra, also encouraged him to study at Berklee, where he might get a better understanding of what Garrett and Herring were up to.

Arriving in Boston and beginning his Berklee studies provided some excitement, but Carbajal admits now that he wasn't as prepared as he would have liked to have been.

Photo by Liz Linder

"When I got to Berklee, I couldn't play jazz," Carbajal said. "I didn't know what I was doing. For the first couple of months, I was awful. I could read but when the changes came, I just couldn't play."

For Carbajal, the solution was simple. Play, and play often. He filled his class schedules with as many jazz ensembles as he could, and when he found an ensemble particularly challenging, he enrolled in the class for a second semester. This practice gave him plenty of time to study with Berklee professors and accomplished performers like Andy McGhee, a featured saxophonist in bands led by Lionel Hampton and Woody Herman; and Walter Beasley, a popular saxophonist whose recordings veer from contemporary jazz to r&b. Advice from Beasley provided a revelatory moment in Carbajal's development as an improvisor.

"He just said, 'You've got to make your solo interesting,'" Carbajal says. "'You've got to make it intense and come back down, and then build back up and finish strong.' When someone plays 20 choruses of eighth notes, it's just not interesting. He taught me a lot about how to be patient, come up with an idea, and play with it."

That advice, and Carbajal's four-hours-a-day practice regimen paid off, as calls started coming for concerts and recording sessions on campus. Eventually, Carbajal's ratings rose and he found himself playing in the college's top ensembles and performing in concerts in the 1,200-seat Berklee Performance Center.

It's been a busy few years in Boston for Carbajal. In addition to classes, he has held a student job throughout his college career and has even worked full-time in an off-campus position. Carbajal has played gigs with a Boston-based funk band named The Jinx Motive, and on top of that, loaded up his schedule with with extra classes, enrolled during summer semesters, and plans to complete his degree in three years, one year faster than the average Berklee student.

After graduation, Carbajal will head back to the Los Angeles area to begin his professional career. For now he's keeping his musical goals clear and simple. "I just want people to be happy when they hear me play. Bebop is what I'm interested in right now. It's really fun for me to play, and I hope the audience finds it fun, too."