Jazz Reviews : An Inauspicious Fusion Debut at Sasch’s in Studio City

The Sunday night program at Sasch in Studio City opened the door to jazz fusion this week with the appearance of guitarists Grant Geissman and David Becker. It was not always a welcome choice.

Geissman, a veteran of Chuck Mangione’s most popular bands, has been leading his own group recently, while recording several attractive collections of his own music. But the pacing and variety present on his studio outings--especially the Blue Moon recording “Take Another Look”--were set aside for this performance in favor of a series of nonstop technical displays.

Original Geissman works like “Choices,” “Big Hair,” “Greer’s Tears” and “Cuba Libre” provided a colorful range of stylistic content. But as soon as the guitarist dipped into his improvisational passages, any sense of creative contrast was replaced by nonstop, monochromatic exhibitions of fast fingering.

The other primary soloists, saxophonist George Shelby and keyboardist Emil Palame, took similar approaches, largely abandoning any sense of music as a balancing of emotions. Shelby, in fact, managed to make his three instruments sound like a set of variants on kazoo playing.

The David Becker Tribune, opening the evening, diminished whatever sense of presence it might have otherwise had by relying heavily on pieces locked into pre-set computer sequencer programs. Few musicians can bring any sense of life or vigor to what is, in essence, a sophisticated metronome, and Becker was no exception.

Sasch clearly has the size, the convenient set-up and the pleasant ambience to become the large jazz room the Valley has needed since the demise of Donte’s. But the quality of its programming will have to diversify and improve if the club is going to become anything more than a one-night-a-week venue for record company showcases.