Jazz Reviews : Mike Cain Quartet Offers a Provocative Set

The Comeback Inn in Venice is one of those small, intimate rooms that seems perfectly tailored for listening to jazz. Especially so when the jazz is as new and provocative as that played on Sunday night by pianist Mike Cain, saxophonist Paul McCandless, bassist James Leary and drummer Art Lande.

The quartet’s program, a virtual showcase for Cain’s original compositions, reached out from the tiny bandstand and gathered the audience into the musical experience. It was the kind of rare performer/listener interaction that only takes place when the setting, the music and the audience are in perfect sync.

Cain, a fast-rising young performer who has been working around town lately with Gerald Wilson’s big band and the James Newton quartet, provided an attractive array of harmonically complex works. On some--”Pendulum” was a good example--the multi-rhythmic foundations and chromatically moving harmonies were strikingly reminiscent of McCoy Tyner’s work.

On other pieces, especially ballads like “Jeanette” and abstractions like “Malique,” the early, but bright glimmerings of Cain’s arrestingly original talent began to shine forth. He is clearly a musician destined for significant accomplishments.

McCandless handled most of the solo chores, and sounded in excellent form. With his playing time dominated these days by saxophone rather than the oboe he made famous with the group Oregon, McCandless has had both time and opportunity to evolve into an excellent improvising musician. Leary’s bass was steady and supportive, and Lande--best-known as a pianist--demonstrated that the subtleties of keyboard technique can apply to percussion instruments as well.