JAZZ REVIEW : COLEMAN FORGETS THAT LESS IS SOMETIMES MORE

Ornette Coleman’s “Song X” collaboration with Pat Metheny is in the jazz Top 10 but it may prove difficult for the veteran jazz innovator to transfer that appeal to his regular Prime Time band. The septet’s nearly two hour set at the Palace before a respectable crowd of 400 Sunday was an uneven one, more likely to confirm old fans’ devotion than convert new ones.

Coleman formed this electric group to match the huge sound of orchestral music but much of the improvisational interplay was lost in a confused welter of sound. Several of the Prime Time players didn’t seem to grasp the key element--that Coleman’s music requires space to come vividly to life--that Metheny and Coleman’s old acoustic partners intuitively understood.

The problem started with twin drummers Denardo Coleman and Kamal Sabir. Their incessant cannonade pushed the tempos at a relentless pace that robbed the leader’s alto sax of the emotional resonance that lies at the heart of his music. When Coleman first dropped the tempo 30 minutes into the set, it took all of 30 seconds for the drummers to start thundering away again.

Fortunately, the second half improved dramatically. The drummers refrained from transforming another ballad into a hell-for-leather charge and a lumbering blues that recalled rock pioneer Captain Beefheart generated the first strong physical pulse of the evening.

Bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma ignited the audience later by leaping dramatically out of the ensemble with staccato upper register runs that engaged Coleman’s alto in a thrilling head-to-head duel. A strong performance of the inviting, calliope-like theme to “Dancing in Your Head” followed but the set’s upward momentum dissipated slightly with a string of individual solos during the finale.

The late surge helped salvage the set but Coleman should consider trimming the lineup if more of the musicians don’t grasp the principle that less playing often results in more music.