JAZZ REVIEW : Hession-Peagler Quartet Rises Above the Din

Dodsworth’s, a spacious restaurant and bar at 2 W. Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena, seems to be drawing large crowds with its four-nights-a-week jazz policy. The attraction last Friday was the Hession-Peagler Quartet.

The trouble is that the crowds in question are supremely uninterested in listening to the music; they are here to talk. Squeezed into a corner of the large bar, the performers had to battle with a noise level that must have made it as difficult for them to concentrate as it was for a reviewer to hear them.

Despite the billing, the core of the group is the couple usually billed as Jim and Martha Hession. The pianist and singer are aided here by Curtis Peagler on alto sax (reviewed here last Friday with the Cheathams Blues Band) and by David Dyson on bass.

Longtime Sunday favorites at Jax in Glendale, the Hessions are well known for their historical jazz concerts, with the husband specializing in ragtime. At Dodsworth’s he adapted himself remarkably well to the more modern requirements of Peagler, whose bold sound almost succeeded in cutting through the noise.

Hession’s song choices ranged from Thelonious Monk’s “In Walked Bud” and Milt Jackson’s “Reunion Blues” to Chick Corea’s “Senor Mouse,” all of which he adjusted to his traditional-cum-mainstream style. His wife’s vocals on such standards as “It Might As Well Be Spring” revealed a superior lounge-singer personality with occasional jazz-inclined melodic variations.

Dyson’s bass kept the beat steady, but the situation in the room seems to demand a drummer. The Hessions will be back Thursday, a night of the week when some customers allegedly do come to hear the music.