JAZZ REVIEW : Modern Jazz-Kronos Quartet Combo Brings Strings to the Fore

Most attempts to graft the sound of strings onto the jazz combo have resulted in dull exchanges between the two, with the strings adding little more than gloss and embellishment. But Sunday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, a joint performance by the Modern Jazz Quartet and the Kronos String Quartet showed it doesn’t have to be that way.

The overall effect was of a well-rehearsed octet rather than of two dissimilar quartets trying their best to blend. Most of the credit should go to MJQ pianist and composer John Lewis, who for the most part came up with pieces involving the strings rather than relegating them to the background.

In “Alexander’s Fugue,” the Kronos strings (David Harington and John Sherba on violins, Hank Dutt on viola and Joan Jeanrenaud on cello) developed the composition’s figure, often orchestrated with the MJQ’s Milt Jackson’s ringing vibraphone or counterpointed by MJQ bassist Percy Heath’s crisp lines. “The Golden Striker--Three Windows” featured stately passages in which the Kronos provided melodic support and harmonic richness that was accented by MJQ drummer Connie Kay’s time keeping on bells.

The most impressive of the pieces, though, was Lewis’ longer composition, “A Day in Dubrovnik,” an impressionistic piece that paints scenes from the Yugoslav city on the Adriatic Sea. It has more in common with 20th-Century English orchestral music than with the be-bop tradition from which the MJQ sprung. It moved easily between jazz syncopations and classical rhythms, swinging especially hard during the sections in which Jackson’s vibraphone took the lead.

Still, Jackson, whose improvisational might and dynamic control are at the heart of the MJQ’s success, seemed underemployed during the joint performance, often standing idly by or adding simple series of notes as decoration. And the encore of the evening, “Sketch,” a piece Lewis wrote in 1960, was an unfortunate example of the tendency to delegate the strings to a supporting role.

The MJQ’s individual set, a handful of selections from George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” and a pair of Ellington compositions, was predictable enough, with the emphasis on the lyrical. Even Kay’s thin time keeping, often stated for long periods with just a cymbal, did nothing to distract from Lewis’ spare keyboard work (he articulated the melody to “My Man’s Gone Now” with a single finger). Heath’s bass provided minimal harmonic interest,but Jackson took charge every time he soloed, sometimes threatening to over-whelm the rest of the band with his enthusiasm.

The Kronos set covered a wide range of styles, displaying the empathy and sense of adventure the quartet is known for. It began with a short piece from Ugandan Justinian Tamusuza that consisted of a pleasant folk-like melody that seemed to be passed around among the violins and viola, with a droning cello and percussive effects tapped out on the violins. John Zorn’s “Cat o’ Nine Tails” ranged across a variety of styles, with dissonant fury balanced by more melodic passages that suggested everything from Thelonious Monk to echoes of “Tea for Two.”

Hungarian composer Istvan Marta’s “Doom. A Sigh” found the quartet at times playing a secondary role to the taped sound of a woman sobbing in an undiscernible language. The group closed its set with a version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” that was filled with enough snap, crackle and pop to draw a tremendous response from the until-then reserved audience.