JAZZ REVIEWS : PIANIST MAKOWICZ

It took, as Noel Coward once said, “a long, long time” before the magic finally happened for pianist Adam Makowicz Saturday night, but when it did, the enchantment was well worth the wait. Making one of his rare appearances in Southern California, the expatriate Polish jazz man didn’t hit his stride (pun intended) until nearly the close of his one-night appearance at Donte’s.

Makowicz played a familiar, but well-chosen program that touched everything from Fats Waller to Henry Mancini. He wittily interpreted the old chestnut “Indiana” as a ballad and tossed a few tongue-in-cheek Cecil Taylorisms into Mancini’s “Days of Wine and Roses.”

Thelonius Monk’s off-center blues “Straight, No Chaser” was transformed into a Basie standard, and “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing” flashed past Makowicz’s fleet fingers.

It was the latter piece that finally launched the pianist free of the well-crafted but emotionally uneventful music which had preceded it. As he continued on into a closing medley of “Autumn Leaves” and an impromptu “Cherokee,” Makowicz’s dazzling technique exploded into a whirlwind of Tatumesque runs that confirmed his status as a world-class jazz man.

The brief engagement obliged Makowicz to submit to that bane of visiting musicians, the pickup rhythm section. In this case, however, Makowicz got lucky, with the team of bassist Terry Plumari and drummer Frank Severino serving up an accompaniment that was as warm and spicy as Donte’s legendary linguini with clam sauce.

Makowicz’s local appearance concluded Sunday afternoon, with a concert at the University of Southern California.