JAZZ REVIEW : IT SOUNDS GOOD WHEN O’HARA HORNS IN

If it has valves, Betty O’Hara will play it.

That was the lesson to be learned from the appearance of this remarkable woman Wednesday at Donte’s. In the course of a single set, she brought her confident improvisational style to a muted trumpet, a valve trombone, a fluegelhorn, an open trumpet, and, most impressively, the double-bell euphonium.

O’Hara, best known as a member of the Maiden Voyage orchestra, also sings in a casually appealing manner. Her ballad mood was particularly moving on “It Never Entered My Mind.”

She surrounded herself with compatible partners. The ubiquitous Tommy Newsom, on tenor saxophone, offered another reminder that he is far more than the mere butt of Johnny Carson’s comic jibes. In addition to soloing splendidly, he read the ensemble parts on “Cascade of the Seven Waterfalls,” a charming resilient tune O’Hara had brought in.

At the piano, Larry Muhoberac displayed such a crisply articulated style and such conceptually interesting jazz lines that it was hard to believe he spent nine years as Elvis Presley’s musical director.

Completing the quintet were Jack Sperling, a long-respected drummer, and the supple, imaginative bass lines of David Stone. Given its ad hoc nature, this was a surprisingly unified group.