JAZZ REVIEW : Bohanon Leads Group at Webster’s

George Bohanon, a spirited and inventive trombonist, is leading the regular Thursday night group at Webster’s, a restaurant at Grand Avenue and 9th Street that is becoming known as a new gathering place for jazz aficionados. The room offers jazz from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays as well as Sunday sessions from 5 to 9 p.m.

Bohanon was supported Thursday by Bennie Maupin, a powerful tenor saxophonist known for his work with McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock. Together they formed an impelling front line on such familiar standards as “Walkin’,” “Blue Bossa” and that seemingly ubiquitous jam session standard, “Softly As in a Morning Sunrise.”

Impressive though the two were with their hard-bop excursions, and despite admirable support by Richard Reid on bass and Harold Mason on drums, the scene-stealer was Eric Reed, an amazing pianist who recently graduated from Cal State Northridge.

Nineteen-year-old Reed not only has formidable techniques but also the knowledge and bop-rooted sensitivity to back it up. At times he almost suggested a reincarnation of Bud Powell, the seminal bopper who died four years before Reed was born. At other points his two-fisted chordal approach indicated a personality that transcends imitation.

Reed will be back at Webster’s Sunday leading his own quartet, under the aegis of the International Assn. of Jazz Appreciation. His is a name that is bound to reach prominence very early in the 1990s.