JAZZ REVIEW : FRANK MORGAN DISPLAYS HIS DEVOTION TO PARKER

“Just call me Charlie Parker’s son,” he said, half smiling but deadly serious. Alto saxophonist Frank Morgan knew exactly what he was talking about Friday night at Hop Singh’s. Three decades of intermittent drug busts, incarceration and painfully few opportunities to explore his music have not diminished Morgan’s fascination with the intricate harmonies and complex rhythms of pure, Parker-derived be-bop.

But Morgan’s filial devotion was far more than that of an imaginary son paying homage at the temple of his father’s past accomplishments. In Morgan’s hands, Parker standards like “Embraceable You” and “K.C. Blues” found new breath and spirit. More than simple revivals, they demonstrated his capacity to refine and expand the elements of an already well-explored musical style.

“Embraceable You,” in particular, balanced Morgan’s delightful variations on Parker’s original recorded solo with dashes of new light color in the form of rapid sweeps up and down the registers of his alto saxophone.

On Thelonious Monk’s “ ‘Round Midnight,” Morgan took the risk of playing less rather than more and uncovered a load of pure gold in the often-neglected melody.

Unfortunately, the back-up trio of pianist Gildo Mahones, bassist Gene Cherico and drummer Lawrence Marable seemed to disagree. Apparently viewing silence as a lack of sound rather than a dramatic pause, they proceeded to fill every one of Morgan’s pointedly open spaces with utterly superfluous filigrees of rhythm.

Morgan deserved better. Playing with a magisterial authority that was absent on a recording made earlier this year, he signaled a readiness to take his place in the front row of today’s jazz alto saxophonists. Given the right opportunities, the right accompanists and the right sense of himself, he just might turn out to be Charlie Parker’s son, after all.