A notable life story

When he’s running through the streets of his hometown of Pasadena, it’s not entirely clear whether it’s the music in his head moving Nolan Shaheed along or the movement that’s bringing out the music. He only knows this: About two miles into a 12-miler, a musical thought blossoms. Somewhere between four and

six miles, the notes begin arranging themselves.

“And by the time I get home,” he said, “I’ll have the whole thing orchestrated in my head. I just have to write it down. That’s why I never run with a Walkman. You don’t even realize how fast you’re going because you’ve got all this great music in your head.”

This is not the only way that distance running has furthered the musical life of Nolan Shaheed, who has been around the world more than a few times thanks to both his trumpet and his training shoes – the latter bringing him to Spokane this weekend for the USA Masters Track and Field Championships at Spokane Falls.

It’s the closest thing to Beijing this year for the 30-to-90-something track set, and go ahead and make jokes about drug testing for Geritol if you must. But there are some remarkable physical feats occurring out there relative to age, and what may be lost with the passing years in horsepower is made up in life stories fully formed.

Which in Shaheed’s case can be boiled down to this:

He makes records and breaks records.

Now 59, Shaheed holds five world and 10 American records indoors and out in the 50-54 and 55-59 age groups, from 800 meters through 3,000.

He ran a 4:25 mile at age 52, and 1:58.65 for 800 two years earlier. He won the 55-59 title in the 5,000 here on Thursday – though his notion of picking up the AR in that wilted after eight laps in the heat. The 800 and 1,500 await over the next two days.

But the rhythms that push him around the track are wildly different than those which have driven a musical career that began with a stint in Duke Ellington’s orchestra, included long service as Marvin Gaye’s musical director and touring work with Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Natalie Cole, Phil Collins and Anita Baker, among others.

In between – and in the 20-some years since he retreated back to studio work – Shaheed has contributed to hundreds of records as one of L.A.’s most in-demand session players. But the latest of those, titled “Lamentation from the Middle Passage,” is the first with his own quintet, which includes a “full of fire” saxophonist named Zane Musa “who keeps me young,” Shaheed said.

“Playing jazz in nightclubs with them is still the most fun – and the most challenging.”

Still, he wouldn’t trade his years on road.

He was barely 23 when Ellington made him “an offer I couldn’t refuse” and 25 when he joined up with Gaye, a collaboration that peaked with the stunning “Live at the London Palladium” album that sold more than 2 million copies. Shortly after, Gaye took himself off the road, suffering from stage fright and more sordid demons, but Shaheed – then known as Nolan Smith – wasn’t without work for long. Soon came another offer that couldn’t be refused – from Count Basie.

“But about two years later, Marvin called and wanted me back – and it took me weeks to get up the courage to tell Basie,” Shaheed said. “How do you tell Count Basie you don’t want to play in his band anymore?

“It’s like telling God, ‘I’ve had enough of heaven.’ ”

That included soaking up the stories of longtime Basie players like saxophonist Charles “Poopsie” Fowlkes – “guys I had idolized,” Shaheed said, “and then learned to respect.”

Shaheed took up the trumpet at 12 after hearing Louis Armstrong on the radio and immediate found his calling – though he fancied himself a runner then, too.

At Muir High School in Pasadena, Calif., he was briefly on one of the best prep track teams – one that included pole vaulter Paul Hegler and long jumper Jerry Proctor, both national record holders at the time.

“But my grades started to drop and my parents told me I couldn’t run track,” he recalled, “and it broke my heart.”

Broke something else, too. A year later, Shaheed remembers seeking out his trumpet teacher because he was having trouble hitting his high notes. The teacher’s prognosis: His student needed to start running again to help his wind.

And he’s never stopped.

He draws great satisfaction from the definitive accomplishments of the track – “not records for records’ sake,” he said, “but knowing that if you set a world record, you’ve done something that no one else in the world has done, at your age. And that’s a great honor.

“I can’t say I’m the best trumpet player who ever lived, or the best bandleader – there’s no such thing.”

But did his parents let him return to the team at Muir?

“Never did,” he laughed. “Probably the reason I’m doing this now – for unfinished business.”

And for the music still in his head, waiting for him to run it out.