JAZZ REVIEW : Jordan Veers From Norm at Indigo

Tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan’s fluid-line, easy-to-listen-to style and his warm and robust sound are usually the givens of his performances. But Wednesday at the Indigo Jazz Club in Compton, the New York-based Jordan’s tone was sometimes inconsistent, going from strong and persuasive one moment to thin and distant the next, giving his set a disjointed air.

But Jordan, a three-decade jazz veteran who has worked with Horace Silver, Max Roach and Charles Mingus, is a very musical fellow, and he made the best of the situation, offering solos that were packed with interesting ideas, however roughly stated.

Accompanied by one of the Rolls-Royces of jazz rhythm sections--the Cedar Walton trio--Jordan worked through a series of pop standards, jazz classics and blues with gusto and invention, if not always the strongest of sounds. But when his tone was solid and firm, it gleamed, like a back-lit ruby.

On “You Stepped Out of a Dream,” the tall hornman began on soprano sax, then switched to the tenor, which he played the rest of the performance. His tenor foray began with a warbling bray that resembled a rogue elephant’s cry, then he continued, mixing gutsy phrases, like a blues shouter, with longer lines that revealed his passion for be-bop.

He opted for a similar mood on “Bag’s Groove,” where he went back and forth between fat notes that showed an affection for Eddie (Lockjaw) Davis, vaults from low notes to singing high ones and scampering, complex ideas that were cleanly executed.

The leader’s version of “Sophisticated Lady” was somewhat rough-hewn but was replete with flavorful melodic fragments.

Pianist Walton, an on-and-off associate of Jordan’s since the late ‘50s, bassist Tony Dumas and drummer Billy Higgins were the epitome of the evenness that Jordan is normally known for. Walton, his technique more formidable as the years pass, is a grand designer, starting things simply and weaving more and more complex lines as a solo progresses. Dumas and Higgins fit him hand-in-glove.

Jordan works the Indigo with Walton’s trio through Sunday, and then next Wednesday through Jan. 14 with pianist Bill Henderson, bassist Louis Spears and drummer Larance Marable. He has ample opportunity to work out whatever kinks he was experiencing Wednesday and return to the top-level form on which he has built his career.