JAZZ REVIEW : JOHNSON IN RIP-ROARING FORM IN FOUR-MAN SHOW

J. J. Johnson, active mainly as a studio composer in recent years, made a rare playing appearance Saturday at the Loa, where the capacity house accorded him the very warm welcome he deserved.

As a young trombonist in the bebop era, Johnson managed to adapt this technically demanding horn to the values that had been established by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Since then he has won more polls that the Southland has had earthquakes, and during this rip-roaring show it seemed as though he was about to start one of his own.

During the opening “Autumn Leaves” and the Parker standard “Confirmation,” Johnson left no doubt that his always formidable chops are unimpaired. Bop trombone can reach a savage degree of intensity, as he made clear by ripping notes out in powerful, perfectly constructed lines.

Announcing that he plans to move back to his native Indianapolis, Johnson played an original composition named for a question he has had to answer too often of late: “Why Indianapolis? Why Not?” This began with a long, simmering solo introduction until the rhythm section exploded behind him.

This was by no means a one-man show. Seldom have four such mature artists expressed themselves so eloquently. Gene Harris, best known as a deeply rooted blues pianist, underwent a startling change of personality on the Johnson piece as he eased into an almost Tyner-like modal mode.

Ray Brown, whom Johnson called the Loa’s head honcho and who leads the club’s regular rhythm section, played a 10-minute unaccompanied solo on “Manha de Carnaval” that most classical bass players would have had difficulty reading, let alone improvising.

Mickey Roker was the soul of delicacy and rhythmic subtlety as he concentrated on the brushes in his “Soft Winds” solo.

After three numbers by his cohorts, Johnson returned to the bandstand in an improbable loan from the Dixielanders to show that even “The Saints,” when you come right down to it, is just a set of chords like any other song and true grist for a bebopper’s mill.

The meeting of these four minds was a flawless exercise in a brand of music that defies time: acoustic, mainstream, bop--call it what you will--it enables the participants to display both the freedom and the spontaneous creativity that has always characterized small group jazz at its best.