The Record Industry Mogul in the Audience : Jazz:The San Diego State University Jazz Ensemble was playing its heart out. And this time someone of note took notice.

SAN DIEGO — Musicians dream of being discovered, of a moment when a music industry power broker walks up after a show and says, “I love your stuff. How would you like to make an album?”

For the San Diego State University Jazz Ensemble, that moment came last January at the National Assn. of Jazz Educators convention at the Town & Country Hotel in Mission Valley.

The ensemble had been selected to play the main stage in front of 3,000 jazz educators and industry insiders on opening night, a prestigious gig during a conference that included such top jazz pros as the Count Basie Orchestra, trombonist Bill Watrous and saxophonists Red Rodney and Michael Brecker.

“The band played the best it’s ever played,” recalled band director Bill Yeager.

One influential listener agreed.

In the audience that night was Albert Marx, president of Los Angeles-based Discovery Records and a 60-year veteran of recording jazz. Art Tatum, Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie and Duke Ellington are among the jazz giants Marx has worked with over the years.

When he heard the SDSU ensemble at the convention, his reaction was immediate and uncomplicated.

“I thought they were great,” Marx said.

“He came up afterward and said, ‘I want to record this band,’ ” Yeager said.

The result is the 17-piece ensemble’s first-ever album, “Don’t Make Noise,” due in record stores by early November.

Although many collegiate jazz ensembles have produced albums on their own, it is rare for such a band to record for a major jazz label like Discovery, which issues about 40 albums a year.

The group could have gone with safe, traditional material for the album, but Yeager chose a mix ranging from traditional big-band charts to tunes that show the rock ‘n’ roll side of many young jazz players.

“There are eight absolutely different styles,” Yeager said. “It’s the sort of album that is extremely challenging for the musicians. They were asked to wear a lot of different hats. I don’t think a person could say they didn’t like it. If they didn’t like one cut, they’ll find something else: fusion, straight-ahead swing, jazz shuffle, rock shuffle, Latin, funk.”

In addition to big-band charts selected by Yeager, the album includes original tunes by Bill Macpherson, the band’s guitarist, and by Rick Helzer, the associate director of jazz studies at San Diego State.

Macpherson’s title cut shows an eclectic mix of styles. Searing electric guitar lines played over a thumping rhythm section of electric bass and drums launch the song forcefully. Though Macpherson’s guitar work shows influences ranging from Jimi Hendrix to contemporary electric jazz guitarists such as John McLaughlin, Al Dimeola and Lee Ritenour, his writing is testimony to his solid grasp of big-band history.

Good dynamics and sophisticated interplay between the wind sections--saxes and flutes, trombones and trumpets--prove Macpherson has done his share of listening to Duke Ellington and other great big-band composers.

“Just when you’re thinking it’s a fusion number, there’s a sudden switch to straight-ahead up-tempo swing,” Yeager said.

“Then, we come right back on the next cut with Don Menza’s ‘Tattoo,’ ” a medium-swing Basie-style number with upright bass.”

Most college jazz ensembles are made up of rosy-cheeked musicians barely out of their teens. But Yeager’s crew boasts the kind of seasoning usually found in professional groups.

Many of the members are in their late 20s or early 30s. Macpherson has been with the band three years. He earned a bachelor’s in music from the revered Berklee School of Music in Boston before traveling west to work on a master’s at San Diego State.

“All the guys in the rhythm section are in their 30s,” Yeager said. “Our bass player, Oliver Shirley, has been here as long as I have--five years. This year we have four new members, and that’s more than usual.”

And just because many of the players are older than your average college student doesn’t mean they are career students. Most earn a living playing a variety of gigs outside the college jazz band. Macpherson’s group, World Beat, appears in local clubs, and trumpeter Jeff Beck and sax man Les Jennings are members of the local rock band Dr. Feelgood and the Interns of Love.

Other ensemble members perform with such local bands as Book of Colors, Borracho y Loco and Limbo Slam.

Under Yeager, the jazz ensemble has become one of the top college bands in the country. In 1988, the group was selected as the top college jazz ensemble in the National Collegiate Jazz Competition at Epcot Center in Orlando, Fla. Last spring, the ensemble placed first in its division in the annual jazz festival at Cal State Fullerton.

Players in the ensemble devote serious time to the music. The group practices together twice a week for 90 minutes. Yeager also requires that each of the band’s four sections--trumpets, trombones, woodwinds and rhythm (guitar, bass, drums)--practice together on their own. Of course, players spend a good portion of additional time learning their individual parts.

It’s easy to see why the group has rallied around Yeager, a seasoned player and educator.

He directed the instrumental program at the well-known Grove School of Music in Los Angeles, then founded the Los Angeles Jazz Workshop in 1979 before coming to San Diego State as director of jazz studies.

At a recent practice session, he spurred his musicians on more like an enthusiastic peer than a seasoned academic.

“Short notes . . . bite ‘em,” he emphasized to the horn players. “I want to hear silence on that eighth rest. That’s what makes us sound tight.

During another break, he and the trombonists debated a particular phrasing.

“Overruled,” Yeager exclaimed merrily, exercising the veto power that comes with the territory.

The serious work was broken up by good-natured joking between Yeager and the musicians.

Despite the humor, they are serious about their music.

Macpherson hopes to get his own group recorded some day soon, and this album could be a stepping stone.

“This is the first jazz album I’ve played on,” he said. “I’ve been in the studio before, but I consider it a milestone in my career that I’ve finally had something released, and I look forward to more opportunities opening up.”

The jazz ensemble will perform Tuesday night Oct. 31 at 7 with San Diego saxophonist Charles McPherson in Smith Recital Hall on the university campus.