Jazz Reviews : Saxman Wallace Searches for a Style

Tenor saxophonist Bennie Wallace, whose quartet opened Tuesday at Catalina Bar and Grill in Hollywood, has been a recording artist for 13 years and, along the way, has been likened to everyone from Coleman Hawkins to Sam Rivers.

That he is a performer of ferocious power is beyond debate. The larger question is whether he has been able to bring to his eclecticism a consistently personal sound and style.

On his opening night, the first number, a series of blues variations, ran to a full 15 minutes. It start with a long a cappella cadenza and ended with an angular unison theme in which the guitarist, Steve Masakowski, played the equivalent of Don Cherry to Wallace’s Ornette Coleman.

Along the way, though, there were lengthy explosions in double time suggesting the ideas explored so successfully by Lew Tabackin and Sonny Rollins. Wallace also shares Rollins’ propensity for picking out highly unsuitable tunes, such as “Tennessee Waltz,” which he ought to give back to Patti Page.

His pianoless group from New Orleans--Masakowski, bassist James Singleton and drummer John Vidacovich--hardly measures up to the company he has kept on records (Dr. John, John Scofield, Eddie Gomez, Elvin Jones). The drums at times seemed unrelated to the up-front activity.

Wallace deserves credit for his ability to build a fiery sense of intensity, but at 44, he remains the eternal searcher after an individual persona. He closes Sunday.