JAZZ REVIEWS : MARK ISHAM: LONG, LOUD, PASSIONLESS

Trumpeter/composer Mark Isham’s recent forays into film scoring (“Never Cry Wolf,” “Mrs. Soffel,” “The Life and Times of Harvey Milk”) have caused a forced hiatus from live performing.

Returning to action Friday night at the Jazz Court of the Palace Theatre with a fusion jazz quartet, Isham displayed a high-decibel version of the kind of synthesizer-textured, minimally harmonized, rhythmically static music that works well in the support of films but which has great difficulty standing on its own.

Electing to announce few of his titles, bridging one piece into another, playing long muted trumpet and fluegelhorn tones into the microphone, relying on digital delay, Isham evoked comparison (favorably) with John Klemmer and (unfavorably) with Miles Davis.

The missing element was passion. As if sensing its absence, Isham occasionally raised his trumpet in bursts of bright improvisational color, but was soon overwhelmed by the underlying morass of intense but static sound.

Isham received solid support from guitarist Peter Mauna, Doug Lunn and drummer Michael Barsimanto.