JAZZ REVIEW : Abene, Harvey Share Lunaria Bill

That Lunaria’s has become one of the best Los Angeles venues for both instrumental and vocal jazz was evident Thursday night, when pianist Mike Abene shared a bill with vocalist Jane Harvey.

Abene, a New Yorker who has played and arranged for such varied artists as Maynard Ferguson and Liza Minnelli, has a compositional and harmonically potent approach to the piano. His opening tune, a Rodgers and Hart standard, was reworked with such complexity that an appropriate new title might be “I Didn’t Know What Tune It Was.”

Backed by Tom Warrington on bass and Tony Inzaloca on drums, Abene worked his way through the exotic paths of Billy Strayhorn’s “Passion Flower,” bringing new insights to its inherent melodic beauty. Another, simpler Strayhorn song, “My Little Brown Book,” gave Abene a chance to display his more orthodox swinging style.

For the second set, Abene did a superb, though daunting job of backing Harvey, who can invest her relatively small voice with a grand passion. She showed admirable taste in her choice of tunes, including a pair of songs by Joe Raposo and a couple of lesser-known Cy Coleman compositions.

Too bad her set was marred by unprofessionalism. After singing eight bars of “We’ll Be Together Again,” she inexplicably stopped and cut the show short, alleging it was in the wrong key. To these ears it sounded just fine.