As the portentous year of 1984 came to a close, Marshall Otwell was at the top of his game. The widely respected pianist had just finished an eight-and-a-half-year run with legendary jazz vocalist Carmen McRae, a gig that took him to concert halls and nightclubs around the world. In his spare time, the Southern California-based accompanist performed with some of jazz’s brightest stars, most memorably a three-month stint with Freddie Hubbard, when that pyrotechnic trumpeter was at the peak of his prodigious powers.

From the outside, it seems like Otwell was ideally poised to take his career to the next level with a move to New York City or an aggressive push into the Los Angeles scene. Instead, he largely withdrew from music to pursue a career as a software engineer, a decision that still leaves him a little puzzled.

“When I quit Carmen, that’s when I should have moved to LA and started shaking hands,” says Otwell, 62, who has lived in the Santa Cruz Mountains town of Boulder Creek since 1995. “I probably should have moved to New York, but it was hard to face that, I don’t know why. Carmen was the thing that got my name out there. Even now I get calls from singers who saw me work with her, looking for an accompanist.”

Though he had intermittent bursts of musical activity in the decades since leaving McRae, it’s only in recent years that Otwell has regained his passion for playing, a gift that he credits largely to drummer David Morwood and his persistent invitations to perform at the Monterey Hyatt.

Otwell will be on the Hyatt gig with Morwood’s trio on Saturday and Sunday.

“I’m eternally grateful to David,” Otwell says. “He called me to come play the session years ago and I told him I’m really busy and I’m not playing much music. He kept calling, and eventually I went down and had a blast.

“I hadn’t been practicing and wasn’t playing really well, but his persistence and tolerance drew me back in. It continues to be one of the only regular places where you can go and play what you want. There aren’t a lot of gigs like that, and this really got me going again.”

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The history of jazz is full of musicians who make a name for themselves and then suddenly drop off the scene. Sometimes it’s substance abuse and personal demons, and other times it’s simply a player getting worn down by the constant hustle, looking for a steadier way to make a living. Otwell falls into the latter group

Raised in a suburb of Toledo, Ohio, he grew up in musical household in which almost everyone played the piano. He started playing little gigs in high school and by the time he went off to Princeton, he had a serious jones for jazz. After a couple of years he flunked out because he was spending all his time in New York City, soaking up the music.

“There were a lot of places to go,” Otwell recalls. “I saw Monk and Coltrane, Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley. It was an exciting time in jazz and New York. But after I flunked out, I went back to Toledo and got a job on a newspaper, and started playing around the Toledo scene.”

When a friend suggested they head out to Southern California, Otwell jumped at the opportunity, and after settling in Laguna Beach he slowly established himself on the Los Angeles scene. In 1975, his buddy, bassist Luther Hughes, got word that Carmen McRae was looking for a new band, and he called her up and asked for a tryout. McRae said she needed a pianist, not a bassist, and Hughes convinced her to let him audition if he brought along a pianist, who turned out to be Otwell. They both got the gig, with drummer Joey Baron rounding out the rhythm section. It wasn’t a smooth transition for her new pianist, as McRae was famously tough on her sidemen.

Otwell made his recording debut on McRae’s misconceived 1976 Blue Note album Can’t Hide Love, but his lovely, telegraphic accompaniment was captured on several excellent Concord albums, including his favorite, 1983’s Nat “King” Cole tribute You’re Looking at Me. Even better is McRae’s posthumously released live album on Novus, For Lady, featuring Zoot Sims.

“I had played gigs with a lot of singers over the years, but I wouldn’t call myself an accompanist when I joined Carmen,” Otwell says. “She was a perfectionist. She knew exactly how she wanted her music to go, and she wasn’t always diplomatic about telling you. But she was also a really lovely and warm person underneath. She would work with me, but it was trial by fire, and it was one of the best experiences in my life.”

MARSHALL OTWELL plays at the Hyatt Regency Monterey’s Fireplace Lounge Saturday and Sunday, 7pm, with David Morwood’s trio. There’s no cover charge. 372-1234.