JAZZ REVIEW : WALDRON, PALS AT SILVER SCREEN

Some of the most creative music in town is issuing nightly from the bandstand at the Hyatt Sunset’s Silver Screen Room. Mal Waldron, the leader, is a pianist who lives in Munich; ages ago he was Billie Holiday’s last accompanist.

Waldron’s work is capricious, verging at times on the Monkish. In his own “Fire Waltz,” after displaying a beguiling ability to create an original melody, he began ad-libbing sparely, as if depositing thoughts in an idea bank, then making a sudden withdrawal in the form of a heavy, somberly chorded climax.

David Friesen, seated on his stool, nursed his upright bass virtually in his lap, limning one remarkable line after another, with occasional bursts of chords. He is one of the unsung, or at least seldom sung, masters of the instrument.

Eddie Moore’s solo on the closing tune was predictably overlong and boring, but as a team member he made it valuably clear that these three men have worked together off and on for a long time.

Frank Morgan, who had been advertised to appear with the trio, did not show for the first set, but more than made up for lost time during the second. Never having met Waldron, he plowed through familiar territory, yet managed to sublimate six choruses of “All the Things You Are” and an even longer solo on “What Is This Thing Called Love” into fountains of unremitting, cliche-free, surprise-packed invention.

It is safe to say that in peak form, and in terms of the post-Charlie Parker tradition, Frank Morgan is the greatest alto saxophonist living today. New Yorkers just don’t know what they are missing.

This altogether extraordinary group closes Saturday.