JAZZ REVIEW : Gifted Guitarist Kevin Eubanks Brims Over at Vine St. Bar & Grill

Guitarist Kevin Eubanks is so brimful of talent that he sometimes just doesn’t seem able to contain it.

His performance Thursday night at the Vine St. Bar & Grill was a case in point, with Eubanks turning up the flame on his pressure-cooker guitar to the point where it seemed on the verge of exploding with pure energy.

At the relatively young age of 30, the Philadelphia-born performer has developed a remarkably broad-based style. Reaching easily from funk to edge-of-the-line contemporary, Eubanks plays with a fine sense of history and a growingly individual personality. On Wes Montgomery’s “Trick Bag,” for example, he dug into a series of foot-tapping riff-based lines, while his own “Shadow Prophets” triggered long, keening lines of emotional expression. A ballad reading of “Stella by Starlight” (with a superb piano solo from Edward Simon) was filled with rich harmonies and complex ornamentation.

If there was a problem, it was one that many players would be happy to have. Eubanks is so technically gifted, so capable of playing whatever comes to mind, that he sometimes seemed to be at the mercy of his mechanical skills. Instead of finding a focus and expanding from it, he simply poured everything into every solo. The results were superficially impressive, but one wished for the kind of musical centering that would take Eubanks from prodigal excellence to mature artistry.

He was accompanied by the exceptionally fine rhythm section of Eugene Jackson on drums, Kenny Davis on bass and Simon on piano. Jackson’s crisp, carefully-articulated drum style, with its precise accents and strong rhythmic surge, was particularly impressive.

Eubanks continues at the Vine St. tonight with shows at 9:15 and 11:15.