JAZZ REVIEW : Forman Takes Spotlight at Bon Appetit

It was all Mitch Forman’s show Sunday night at Bon Appetit. Even though the keyboardist’s trio included such high-powered notables as bassist Brian Bromberg and drummer Tom Brechtlein, Forman was clearly in the spotlight.

Looking as intently dedicated to his collection of keyboards as inventor Rick Moranis was to his reducing machine in “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,” Forman was virtually in perpetual motion. Steaming through a collection of original pieces bearing titles like “A Sea of Fertility” and “Polka For Mr. Nice Guy,” he played with a passion and intensity that frequently belied the abstract nature of the compositions.

Forman’s richly textured style varied as he moved from instrument to instrument. On acoustic piano, his improvisations often overflowed with warmly traditional harmonic clusters. His synthesizer work, in contrast, was densely layered with overlapping sounds. Best of all, when he picked up an over-the-shoulder keyboard controller, his single-note lines darted and danced with the soaring levitation of a Space-Age Baryshnikov.

Bromberg and Brechtlein, two of the strongest young rhythm section players in town, responded well to the driving urgency of Forman’s music. Occasional confusing moments caused by inadequate rehearsal time usually were recycled into almost instinctive creative variations. It was the kind of instant-recovery music-making typical of what happens when spontaneity breaks out between good performers.

A longtime New York-based musician, Forman has been on the West Coast for less than a year. But the Sunday night program clearly intimated that his no-holds-barred, hard-swinging approach to fusion-styled contemporary music is going to have considerable impact on the local scene.

Forman, Bromberg and Brechtlein can also be heard at Le Cafe in Sherman Oaks on Sunday and Monday.