Teen saxophonist chasing the dream of a music career

Chase Huna was a fair-skinned, 7-year-old boy with a shock of red hair when he first became entranced by the siren call of jazz saxophone.

He was watching Chris Compton, a saxophonist whose son was a close friend of Chase’s younger brother, Peyton, on Jim Fitzgerald’s concert series at the Gardens on El Paseo. Chase watched how Compton looked playing his smooth jazz sounds and thought, “I really want to do that someday.”

He and his brother slept in bunk beds in their La Quinta home next to a CD player. Peyton today likes classic rock bands like Queen and AC/DC, but Chase always played smooth jazz, a genre that achieved mass popularity in the mid-1980s with Kenny G.

“What my parents have told me,” said Huna, now 17, “is, ever since I was 2, I always wanted to listen to jazz. I always wanted to listen to Peter White and Mindi Abair and Dave Koz and Steve Oliver. For some reason, I don’t know why, that’s what I gravitated to.”

His father, Tom Huna, didn’t get that at first. He let Chase have a guitar when he was 7, but Chase only played it about five times. Then, during fourth grade at Washington Charter School, his dad noticed he played the recorder the school gave their students pretty darn good. He asked Chase if he’d like a saxophone and Chase said, “Yeah!” He got him one for his 10th birthday and they spent the day trying to figure out how to make it work. When they learned they needed to use a reed to get a sound, they called Compton, who got him the right kind.

Six months later, Huna was playing at one of the desert’s premier jazz clubs, the Backstreet Bistro in Palm Desert.

“I was in fifth grade and the Palm Desert Middle School kids were playing over there,” Huna said, sitting on a bench at Rancho Mirage Community Park. “My dad heard about it and said, ‘Let’s go over there. They got some jazz and it will be fun.’ We met this bass player, Bill Saitta, on a break and told him I was a sax player. He said, ‘Do you have your horn?’ I said ‘Yeah’ and he said, ‘Go out and get it,’ and I ended up playing with the combo. It was a very memorable night.”

Saitta recalled that Huna’s saxophone was bigger than he was back then.

“He seemed like a nice kid, but his playing was limited to his school band experience,” he said. “What impressed me was his determination. So, I invited him back, as I do most of the kids who show up. The difference was that Chase came back and kept on coming back. It was obvious that he enjoyed the vibe.”

Where to see him

Huna is now a senior at Palm Desert High School, but he’s already a pro. He’ll be playing solo to recorded tracks at the Rancho Mirage Art Affaire, the city’s premier community event, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Rancho Mirage Community Park. He’ll join jazz guitarist Steve Oliver and singer-pianist Spencer Day on the Grooves at the Westin series Saturday, Nov. 12 at the Westin Mission Hills Resort in Rancho Mirage.

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In the past month, he’s also played with Oliver at Spaghettini nightclub in Seal Beach and with jazz guitarist White at a private party in La Quinta. He was scheduled to play with the up-and-coming La Quinta indie band, the Yip Yops, Wednesday, Nov. 2, at the Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles, opening for Gram Rabbit. He’s also performed solo at Miss Amores Bar & Lounge on El Paseo.

In 2015, Huna played the Newport Beach Jazz Festival on a bill with such jazz stars as Gerald Albright, Mindi Abair and Larry Graham (originally with Sly & the Family Stone). He also played the San Diego Jazz Festival with such non-jazz stars as Maxwell, Erykah Badu and Toni Collette.

He began receiving attention as somewhat of a boy wonder during gigs with the Gand Band at the Purple Room. Fitzgerald, a jazz promoter and DJ with CV 104.3 FM, helped him transition from pre-teen bar band player to guest artist with stars.

“He would do the Fitz’ Jazz Café (at the McCallum Theatre series) and do preview parties at the Hyatt (Regency Indian Wells Resort),” Huna said. “We met Michael Lington when I was still 12 and I ended up playing with (the jazz saxophonist) at the Riviera in Palm Springs a few months later. We went up and I got his CD and I said, ‘I’m a saxophone player.’ He said, ‘If you know my music in a few months, you can come up and play it with me at the Riviera.’ So we went there that night and I got to play with Michael Lington. Fitz was a big help in that. Fitz has definitely done a whole bunch for us.”

Fitzgerald said Huna's maturity gave him his first indications that he had "something special to offer."

"Chase has always felt like a wise, old soul,” Fitzgerald said. “I was impressed before I heard him play a single note because I saw how he rolled and saw the love, commitment and support from his family. I next got to see how he interacted with artists I introduced him to and how they gladly took Chase under their wings. I heard a young man who loved his instrument, was green and, of course, needed to grow and learn his instrument more fully. I've seen a steady progression the last several years and am very proud of him.”

Huna credits Palm Springs-based saxophonist Will Donato, who tours nationally with Art of Sax, with giving him the wings to fly beyond the desert.

“Will Donato is this incredible entertainer that basically got me started with playing everywhere,” he said. “Will brought me to Spaghettini’s and that kind of opened up a whole different chapter in my musical career. That first night at Spaghettini’s, I played with Michael Jackson’s (late) drummer, Ricky Lawson, who also was the drummer for the Yellowjackets and ‘I Will Always Love You’ with Whitney Houston.”

Donato introduced Huna to Oliver, and Huna and Oliver co-wrote the instrumental, “On the Chase,” which Fitz often plays on the radio. Stations from KBPR in Boston to WMBR in Rio de Janeiro also have aired the catchy, upbeat song. Oliver then produced an album for Huna on his SOM (Steve Oliver Music) label that is scheduled for a January release.

Original sound

Huna calls his music a unique mix of contemporary pop and improvisational jazz.

“I love playing the songs and I love improvising as well,” Huna said. “A bunch of the stuff I get (for) improvising is (from) listening to other genres. Like with Justin Timberlake, there might be a horn part I like that I could somehow incorporate into a solo or an improvisation. That’s definitely a big reason why I listen to other genres of music -- to get as many ideas as I can out of those songs.

“I strive to have a unique sound when I play saxophone. There’s already a Mindi Abair, there’s already a Dave Koz, so, we don’t need another one of those. We need a new person. I get different ideas from those different songs. So all music influences me.”

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Huna attended the Idyllwild Arts Academy summer jazz program between his freshman and sophomore year, and the emphasis was exclusively on bebop jazz. “That’s not my favorite thing,” he said, but he considers it a valuable experience. He’s also played with blues great Kal David, and bluesy-jazz artist Deanna Bogart. He especially likes playing the challenging, original music of Ison Van Winkle of the Yip Yops.

“It’s very cool to just branch off from only doing one genre to doing a whole bunch of different things,” he said. “That’s why I like playing with the Yip-Yops so much. Their music, first of all, is so great. The songs are all written by Ison, (but) we play this one cover, ‘Enjoy the Silence’ by Depeche Mode. He arranged it (with) me playing sax on it and it’s really, really cool. There are some songs where I just sit back and play the horn parts (written by Van Winkle), but, in ‘Enjoy the Silence’ I get a solo at the end.”

Huna plans to take advantage of the buzz he expects his CD will create by skipping college and hitting the road with a touring artist.

Saitta would like to see Huna study music at a university, but Fitzgerald thinks Huna could become a jazz star, “as long as he realizes it's a long road and that as an artist you never get to the end.​”

Huna is grateful to have so many people interested in his career.

“Everyone is watching what we do,” he said. “That includes promoters and other musicians that are big in the jazz world and everyone that has connections in the jazz industry.  So, once we have our CD out, I think it will chart well on the radio and we’ll get a really good response.

“There have been a few different young artists that have graduated from high school and didn’t go off to college. They just started doing shows and right now they are the biggest thing in contemporary jazz. So, we’re trying to do that as well.”

Huna in concert

Saturday and Sunday: the Rancho Mirage Art Affaire, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on the grounds of Rancho Mirage Community Park, 71560 San Jacinto Drive, Rancho Mirage. Free admission. (760) 324-4511

Saturday, Nov. 12: On the Grooves at the Westin series with guitarist Steve Oliver and singer-pianist Spencer Day, 7 p.m., Fireside Lounge patio of Westin Mission Hills Resort, 71333 Dinah Shore Drive, Rancho Mirage. $99 plus taxes and gratuity, including dinner. (760) 770-2150

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