JAZZ REVIEW : BRECKER’S HISTORIC NIGHT

History may have been made Thursday night when drummer Adam Nussbaum, working with the tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker before a packed house, performed with wire brushes during a ballad. As far as anybody can remember, nothing like that ever happened before at the Palace in Hollywood.

Actually, nobody can recall even if a ballad--a real ballad like “My One and Only Love”--has ever been heard from the stage that caters to the electronic sounds of today. But that is not to say that Brecker, touring on the heels of his first solo album, made his acoustic debut here. Most of the instruments onstage were electric and the saxophonist spent a good deal of his set playing the EWI (Electric Wind Instrument), but the five talented workmen of Brecker’s group used their modern tools with extraordinary results.

Brecker opened his set with a highly charged “Nothing Personal,” a Don Grolnick composition in which the tenor man and guitarist Mike Stern offered dynamic solos. Though the facile electric bassist Jeff Andrews suffered at the hands of the sound man, the overall effect of the piece was good.

The piece also served to introduce Joey Calderazzo, an exceptional pianist whose musical instincts, technique and strength belie his 22 years. Oddly, he didn’t play on the set’s only ballad (and standard) inclusion, but his adroitness and sensitivity were exhibited throughout the set.

Guitarist Stern contributed a pair of compositions to the set, “Choices,” an easily paced tune that had Brecker humorously aping Miles Davis, and “Upside Down,” a hard-rocking tune that didn’t hang together well.

The best effort came in Brecker’s “Syzygy,” whose break-neck tempo was eclipsed by Stern’s gently wafting solo over a rush of cymballic freneticism created by drummer Nussbaum.

Opening for Brecker was the Wayne Johnson Trio, featuring bassist Gary Willis and drummer Bill Berg. Guitarist Johnson’s overly long set delivered a rash of derivative material that served best to remind one of Pat Metheny and Weather Report.