JAZZ REVIEW : Triple Treat Takes a Swing

A trio billed as Triple Treat, whose members get together for a couple of months each year, blew into town Tuesday to begin a five-day run at Catalina Bar & Grill.

Triple Treat consists of pianist Monty Alexander, bassist Ray Brown and guitarist Herb Ellis. The latter pair might be counted as a single unit. Because they have been working together off and on since 1953, it has been said of them that they play as if joined at the very hip. Alexander has worked with them both frequently over the past 15 years.

At times, particularly when they played a tear-’em-up standard like “Seven Come Eleven,” this implacably swinging group strongly suggested the early Oscar Peterson Trio of which Ellis and Brown were members for five years. However, Alexander, who acknowledges Peterson as a major influence, still shows traces of his Jamaican heritage.

When these men play old songs, they avoid the obvious, leaning to half-forgotten items like “To Each His Own,” “In the Wee Small Hours,” even a high-flying treatment of the “Flintstones” theme. Nat King Cole, an early Alexander idol, was represented by “I Can’t See for Lookin’.”

Ellis, a Texan with the blues in his blood, brings a funk-filled vitality to every tempo; after a particularly fiery solo, he may simply tap the guitar, bongo style, to back up a piano solo. Ray Brown brought his 200-proof strength and clarity to rhythm and solo passages alike. Highlights of the set were a 16-bar blues of his own, and Alexander’s “Think Twice,” an engaging original based on the chords of “Love for Sale.”

It is notable that when this group plays the blues, or anything that is blues related, it is always an urban, uptown, upscale blues feeling that reflects the sophistication of their backgrounds and the subtlety of their interaction.

Triple Treat’s high level of creative artistry is truly among the seven wonders of today’s jazz world. The trio closes Saturday.