Jazz Reviews : Hutcherson With Trio at Catalina Bar & Grill

Bobby Hutcherson, the Los Angeles-born vibraphonist who for most of the past 20 years has been leading various small groups, opened Thursday at Catalina Bar & Grill, fronting a quartet.

Although the musicians--Bill Henderson, piano; Tony Dumas, bass, and Larance Marable, drums--have all worked with him before at one time or another, it became obvious a minute or two into the first tune that this was not an organized group, nor even one that had rehearsed.

Consequently, the evening’s music began with a very casual, fast-paced blues, centered on a long and intermittently inspired solo by Hutcherson and leading to the inevitable traded choruses with the drums. “All the Things You Are” was no less free of surprises, from the standard introduction to the standard coda; but Henderson’s excellent solo was well supported by Hutcherson’s four-mallet chording.

Not until “My Foolish Heart,” introduced with a gentle half-chorus of unaccompanied vibes, did the quartet finally begin to cohere. The 40-year-old Victor Young ballad offered a resplendent reflection of Hutcherson’s eloquence, particularly when he made shimmering use of a series of vibrant tremolos.

“Blue Bossa,” taken at a hearty pace, was a satisfactory vehicle for all hands.

Toward the end of the set, Hutcherson finally led the group into one of his own compositions, and certainly one of his best, “Little B’s Poem,” written for one of his first recording sessions in 1965 and still one of the most charming of all jazz waltzes.

Though it fell short of the adventurous ends that might have been achieved with adequate preparation, the foursome on the whole came reasonably close to the standards one would expect from musicians of this caliber. Perhaps by the time they close Sunday, a few more of the vibist’s original works will have made their way into the repertoire.