Jazz Reviews : Sadao Watanabe Shines, but the Beat Wobbles

There was a curiously quixotic feeling to Sadao Watanabe’s opening set at the Palace Theatre Thursday night. The veteran Japanese jazz alto saxophonist seemed bound and determined to make his straight-ahead music fit into the clattering, over-amplified fusion playing of his accompanying group.

With 50 records--both mainstream and jazz/fusion style--under his belt, Watanabe clearly has proven that he can adapt to the changing tides of musical fashion; in the early ‘70s, he was one of the first mainstream musicians to play fusion. But the core of his work has always been, and continues to be, centered in a jubilant, Phil Woods-like be-bop that is articulate and energetic enough to stand on its own terms.

Unfortunately, this time around Watanabe elected to showcase his playing in the framework of an aggressively contemporary rhythm section--one whose idea of intensity usually seemed to involve rushing the tempo. Worse, whether the music was Brazilian samba, straight-ahead jazz or contemporary fusion, the accompaniment generally fell into a hard-edged groove and repeated it, ad infinitum.

The result was that Watanabe’s soaring lines--overflowing with filigree ornamentation in the ballads and bursting out of the chord changes on the up-tempos--rarely received the support they deserved. Still, there were times, as on the bossa nova “Elis,” when the rhythmic foundation integrated well with Watanabe’s soloing. More often than not, he was left to twist and turn on his own.

Singer Rachelle Ferrell, who joined the group for two wildly melismatic vocals, sounded like a young star with a promising future.