JAZZ REVIEW : Roach’s Double Quartet Debuts

Drummer Max Roach, a man most fond of challenging musical situations, led his Double Quartet through a variety of settings and moods in its Los Angeles debut Tuesday at Catalina Bar & Grill in Hollywood.

The group, which has two LPs on Soul Note under its belt, joins together Roach’s longtime foursome--trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater, tenor saxman Odean Pope and bassist Tyrone Brown--with the Uptown String Quartet of Diane Monroe and Lesa Terry on violins, Maxine Roach (the leader’s daughter) on viola and Eileen Folson on cello.

It’s not quite a marriage made in heaven . . . but perhaps in time.

Some of the tunes successfully melded the bands--like the serene Pope ballad “Sis,” where the strings carried the melody. Others, like Bridgewater’s bop-ish “Bird Says”--built on the harmonic foundation of the Parker opus, “Confirmation”--found the strings serving a more supporting function, offering tasty, cooking background riffs behind the soloists.

Of the up-tempo works, Roach’s “A Little Booker”--dedicated to the great trumpeter Booker Little--did a dandy job of incorporating the strings with the jazz quartet in a heated mode. The two groups had an equal hand in delivering the jerky-like-a-jeep-on-a-bumpy-road melody line, then, with Roach and Brown building a rhythmic blaze, the strings darted in and out with lines that added color to the soloists.

The strings were in the spotlight on “Let Us Break Bread Together,” which had an Americana flavor, and on Oscar Pettiford’s “Tricotism,” where Monroe strummed her instrument while Folson, in the set’s lone string improvisation, played a pizzicato solo that had some good ideas.

Bridgewater, employing a crackling sound, was superb throughout, delivering snappy lines that were imbued with a tuneful lyricism. Pope’s tone was somewhat flabby, and his solos relied on a surging energy for their effect. Roach, ever the resilent trapsman, and Brown never let their cohorts down.

The group’s drawback is that the strings are not yet fully integrated with the jazz quartet. If that was a matter of adapting to the room, it will no doubt be worked out by the group’s Sunday night closing.