JAZZ REVIEW : Chiarenza Returns to First Love

Charlie Chiarenza, best known as the boniface who ran Alfonse’s for almost five years, has returned to his first love--playing jazz guitar. He opened Thursday for a short run (through tonight) at the Silver Screen Room of the Hyatt on Sunset.

If he is out of practice, there were few signs of it as he wove his fluent way through “Wave,” “Just Friends” and other standards. His sound is relaxed, his harmonic ear keen.

Chiarenza lays no claim to Joe Pass-like perfection, but he provides an eloquent lead voice for this unusual trio. The most intriguing aspect of the group is the presence of Frank Marocco. “Jazz Accordion” sounds like a contradiction in terms, yet Marocco brings to this unwieldy instrument all the requisite values. The single note lines of his solos are equivalent to those of a typical bop pianist. He is no less adept in his use of chords to back up Chiarenza’s choruses, or to establish the melody on “Sophisticated Lady.”

Marocco even does double duty, providing a lively ongoing bass line. He has few competitors in this realm and may well consider himself the monarch in a very small kingdom.

Completing this unpretentiously agreeable unit is the dependable drummer Nick Martinis, who established an easy going bossa beat on “Change Partners.”

Much as one misses the great nights at Alfonse’s, it is good to welcome Chiarenza back on the scene in a role he had all but abandoned.