JAZZ REVIEW : VINNY GOLIA ENSEMBLE AT HOP SINGH’S

It’s been called avant-garde jazz, new thing, new wave and (sometimes) disorganized noise. Whatever the label, it’s not the kind of music one usually encounters on a casual cruise of Los Angeles’ major jazz clubs.

So veteran new-wave saxophonist/composer Vinny Golia decided to take matters in his own hands Saturday night at Hop Singh’s. Fronting a big, high-decibel 19-piece ensemble, he celebrated his 40th birthday with a rare evening chock-full of his own determinedly vanguard music.

Playing an array of woodwind instruments that would have delighted a pipe-fitter, Golia was particularly impressive on soprano saxophone, his elegant, filigree style contrasting nicely with the acerbic tensions of the ensemble.

Golia’s compositions, in the early part of Saturday’s first set, were less impressive--filled with too many dulling unisons and emotionally restrictive march rhythms and handicapped, perhaps, by the caution of a new drummer.

But things picked up considerably with “GCG,” a Japanese-influenced work based on complex but warmly evocative textures and dominated by Ann Laberge’s shakuhatchi-like flute solo.

The evening’s best moments, in fact, came when Golia created semi-improvisational settings and encounters for his many gifted soloists: the spontaneous four-clarinet textures on “Other Rooms We Know”; the tailgate/avant-Garde trombone work of John Rapson and the flugelhorn playing of John Fumo; the soaring, high-harmonic clarinet lines of guest soloist John Carter.

Appropriately, the set closed with a brief visit from one of the city’s finest contemporary pianists, Horace Tapscott, who offered a short, whimsically avant-garde version of “Happy Birthday” for Golia.