JAZZ REVIEW : High-Powered Jazz by Pianist Michel Camilo

If there was a jazz equivalent of heavy metal, then pianist Michel Camilo would be Van Halen. Camilo all but lit the keys on fire during a smoking first set at Elario’s Wednesday night.

Spurred by the relentless attack of 22-year-old wunderkind drummer Cliff Almond, a former San Diegan, Camilo showed a percussive power that has been compared to McCoy Tyner’s, while proving that he also has a gentle way with a ballad.

Dominican-born Camilo was trained as a classical pianist, but became a die-hard be-bop fan after hearing jazz on the radio as a teen-ager in Santo Domingo. Now, he is clearly outgrowing his early influences and carving his own special niche in the jazz world. With his left hand pounding out awesome clusters of chords and his right racing up and down the keyboard to produce machine-gun flurries, Camilo has an unstoppable one-two punch.

Besides being a top-tier pianist technically, Camilo is a first-rate composer. He opened with a thundering version of John Coltrane’s “Impressions,” but many of the other pieces after that were his own.

Between pieces with his trio, that also included bassist Michael Bowie, Camilo kept up a monologue about the experiences behind them.

The Latin-based “And Sammy Walked In” was written after a spontaneous nightclub jam with percussionist Sammy Figueroa.

Dizzy Gillespie’s “Birk’s Works,” a slow, bluesy ballad that Camilo infused with fresh energy, became part of his repertoire after he jammed with Gillespie in Santo Domingo.

“Uptown Manhattan,” which provided some of the set’s outstanding moments, captures the frenetic nighttime buzz of the Manhattan clubs where Camilo first heard players like Wynton Marsalis, George Benson and McCoy Tyner after moving to the United States 11 years ago.

“Village of the Angels” featured Camilo’s smooth, flowing, right-hand improvisations over sparse left-hand chording reminiscent of Herbie Hancock. It was written by the late Weather Report bassist Jaco Pastorius, who never had a chance to record it but gave it to Camilo after he asked for a few songs.

Several of the compositions Camilo played appear on his albums, “Michel Camilo” and “On Fire,” both of which hit number one on jazz charts. His latest album is “On the Other Hand.”

If there’s a downside to Camilo, it’s that he sometimes doesn’t leave enough room for his brilliant musical ideas to sink in. Lyrical pianists such as Bill Evans have achieved greater emotional impact with fewer notes.

For Camilo, there doesn’t seem to be enough of a middle ground between graceful, flawlessly executed ballads such as “In Love” and his more frequent thundering assaults.

But keep in mind that Camilo, 36, is still a musical adolescent whose tremendous raw talent will mature with age.

Camilo, Bowie and Almond have a special chemistry together. Almond’s attack, punctuated by machine-gun rolls, booming bass kicks and lightening-quick cymbal accents, makes an especially good foil for Camilo’s own fireworks. Bowie’s smooth, subtle bass work gives the music a stable foundation.

The trio appears at Elario’s nightly through Sunday.