JAZZ REVIEW : Harry Edison Offers Tasteful Economy at Indigo

When Harry (Sweets) Edison picks up the trumpet, he follows one of the first laws of jazz: The notes you leave out are as important as the notes you put in.

In the second of three sets Tuesday that opened a five-night engagement at the Indigo Jazz Club in Compton, Edison’s performance was about the essences, rather than the possible complexities, of a jazz improvisation. As he has throughout his 50-year career, the mainstream master employed his trademark economy, judiciously choosing notes that packed musical heft.

The indefatigable Edison, looking vital and dapper at 74, began and ended with a blues. Milt Jackson’s “Bag’s Groove” and Edison’s theme song, “Centerpiece,” both found the leader playing with a sassy, grainy sound that recalled Roy Eldridge and delivering short, finger-popping phrases that had a solid melodic core and swung effortlessly. Often, he’d repeat an idea more than a few times in a row, varying his sound or attack as if he were a jeweler turning a gem in the light to see all its facets.

After a gentle “Watch What Happens,” a bossa nova take where pianist Art Hillery shone, and a jump tempo version of “Just Friends” that found the leader negotiating the rapid pace deftly, Edison played “Lover Man.” This alternately mournful and sizzling version began with the leader whispering the melody through his Harmon-muted horn, then launching into a series of blues-drenched lines that all but stood up and shouted.

In each of his solos, but particularly on “Lover Man,” Hillery displayed his knack for chordal ingenuity, moving his hands together simultaneously to create deep, ringing lines meshed with throbbing harmonies. In his single line work, he followed the example of Edison and played the notes that sang the sweetest.

Bassist Harvey Newmark and drummer Jimmie Smith, the Angeleno who now spends nine months a year in Tokyo, gave Edison the support of an easy chair. Smith was always crisp and precise and Newmark soloed with a fluid, elegant manner.

Edison is a classic embodiment of the finest virtues of the swing era and we are fortunate to have him in our midst. He continues at the Indigo through Saturday.