Jazz lover keeps the groove alive

Name almost any jazz musician, and Pat Glancy will point to a precise spot within the rows of more than 10,000 records dominating the walls of his Camille Street home office and come up with your request.

"My Count Basies are all right here," the 73-year-old scientist said over the sound of Basie's piano, waving his weathered hand past aging amplifiers, hundreds of labeled tapes and endless, alphabetized vinyl.

Glancy will be one of anticipated hundreds of jazz fans to attend this weekend's outdoor jazz festival on Minnesota Street celebrating Count Basie's 100th birthday.

A genuine jazz lover, Glancy spends hours in his room on his favorite green rolling chair listening to jazz greats, sometimes trying to make the same music come out of one of his own saxophones.

His wife of 50 years, Julie, won't go into his album room to clean. It's too cluttered.

"It's wall to wall in there," she said. "He's a great guy and he loves his music, but I'd rather have nice furniture in there wall to wall."

Jazz changed Glancy's life, he said, from the moment he heard Harry James' trumpet on his friend's record player in 1947.

"I thought, holy mackerel! They're just making it up as they go."

He was hooked. He started playing trumpet and saxophone in his hometown of Roundup, Mont., with a few other teenagers. They formed a jazz band and played bar gigs, even though they weren't old enough to drink.

Jazz took a back seat to life when he went to college, got married and worked for 43 years as a hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey.

Now Glancy listens to jazz through headphones on his morning strolls through Lone Mountain Cemetery and laughs when he recounts the time he snuck into the Monterey Jazz Festival posing as a professional photographer in the 1970s.

The photos he snapped of Basie and Lockjaw Davis are some of his most prized possessions.

His jazz collection is priceless, he said, and it's growing all of the time.

He picks up his musical treasures at garage sales and used record stores, only paying full price when he finds a real gem, like the Art Pepper CD box set he just couldn't resist.

"It's hard to find good jazz in today's media and radio stations," Glancy said. "This may be the only decent investment I ever made."

IF YOU GO

What: 'Basie at 100' celebration

When: Friday: 7:30-9:30 p.m. Saturday: Noon-9:30 p.m. Sunday: 1-6 p.m.

Where: On Carson City's mobile stage on Minnesota Street behind the Brewery Arts Center, 449 W. King St. In the event of rain, performances will move inside.

Contact Robyn Moormeister at rmoormeister@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1215.