JAZZ REVIEW : WORLD SAXOPHONE QUARTET HAS RHYTHM

It is curious that when four saxophonists get together to play jazz without a rhythm section, the rhythm may become more pronounced than if drums and bass were there.

So it was Saturday evening when the World Saxophone Quartet took to the stage of Hollywood’s Palace Court in march time, with baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett beating out a strident rhythm as his cohorts vacillated between melody and wildly improvised cacophony. Even “One Waltz Time,” a composition by alto saxophonist Oliver Lake, seemed more a march than the waltz its title suggests.

But when the World Saxophone Quartet got down to Duke Ellington, the subject of the 10-year-old group’s first American record release, there entered into the picture an easy swing, melodic devotion and harmonic organization unheard in the group’s previous efforts.

Alto saxophonist Julius Hemphill arranged the treatment of Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life,” and it worked perfectly as a vehicle for this foursome whose faithfulness to the tune was surprising.

The Ellington-Strayhorn direction of the World Saxophone Quartet is a good one in that it provides easy access to the nether world of the jazz avant-garde. And few other composers could provide such access to the jazz tradition for such a group.