JAZZ REVIEW : Guitarist Gregory on Right Course

One of the Los Angeles Jazz Society’s annual tributes is a Shelly Manne Memorial Award given to a new talent. The most recent winner, guitarist Steve Gregory, was heard Sunday at the Society’s weekly “Windows on Hollywood” brunch in the Holiday Inn.

Gregory, 26, is still a student at Cal State Northridge; his bassist, Trey Henry, and drummer David Tull, are CSN graduates. Because all three have often worked together in several contexts, what was heard Sunday rose at times above the conventional jam session level.

True, some of the numbers were predictable, but Gregory’s workouts on “Autumn Leaves” and “No Greater Love” displayed his assertively fluent style on a solid body guitar, alternating between long single note lines and occasional bursts of well-timed chords.

Of special interest was his version of Monk’s “Straight No Chaser,” for which he rearranged the length of the tune’s already quirky phrases so that they became doubly eccentric. The trio’s repertoire also boast a few original works. “Jazz Brunch,” composed for this occasion by Gregory, opened stealthily with a vamp spelled by a series of drum breaks before stating its well-crafted theme. “Extrovert,” by bassist Henry, was a buoyant showpiece for the unit.

New music aside, what’s laudable about musicians like Gregory, Henry and Tull is that they know such songs as “My One and Only Love” and “Yardbird Suite,” and can play them in 1990 without seeming either antiquated or condescending. Gregory’s technical finesse and imagination have set him on the right course, one that will surely establish his firmly in the new non-synthesized generation of true believers.