Lean, Mean Jazz Sizzles at Competing Nightclubs

San Diego’s two top jazz clubs went head-to-head with first-rate music last Thursday night. Versatile pianist Mike Garson and an all-star band churned out straight-ahead jazz at the Jazz Note in Pacific Beach, while guitarist Mark Whitfield’s trio burned through some lean, mean jazz at Elario’s.

Garson’s appearance at the Jazz Note last Thursday through Sunday nights was the most interesting thing to hit the club in weeks.

Club operator Steve Satkowski brought Garson together with two ex-Stan Getz band-mates--drummer Mike Hyman and bassist Brian Bromberg--and rising sax star Eric Marienthal, best known for his work with Chick Corea.

The music on opening night was unexpectedly fiery, considering that Garson plays only occasionally with Marienthal and Bromberg, and had never worked with Hyman.

Following Garson’s lead, the players turned Thursday night’s first set into a sweaty, inspired small-club escape from the constraints of the music biz. The set consisted of standards including “There Is No Greater Love” and “A Night in Tunisia,” plus Garson originals such as “Natasha.”

Garson was playing with a slight handicap. He wore a brace on a wrist plagued by tendinitis, but the restraint didn’t seem to inhibit his hands from scampering up and down the keyboard as they produced a steady stream of pleasant surprises.

In Garson’s playing, you can hear echoes of several great pianists: McCoy Tyner’s muscular, chordal attack, Kenny Barron’s bright lyricism and the classically influenced meditations of Steve Kuhn. The impromptu group’s music was ragged around the edges, but a few bumpy transitions were more than compensated for by the intensity of visceral emotions laid bare.

Hearing Whitfield’s second set last Thursday pointed out what a difference two years can make.

Whitfield was promising enough on his debut album “The Marksman,” recorded two years back and released last year. He paid competent homage to personal heroes such as George Benson and Wes Montgomery but struggled to find a musical identity of his own. Perhaps because he was unsure of himself, he handed off a significant number of solos to pianist Marcus Roberts.

At Elario’s, , Whitfield, now a polished 24-year-old, stood confidently on stage. Backed by only bass and drums, he stretched six songs to 90 minutes with a phenomenal display of Marksmanship.

The first set had included several songs from his new album “Patrice,” released last week. The second drew mostly from “The Marksman.”

For a guitar fanatic such as yours truly, this night was the ultimate high--15- and 20-minute guitar solos uninterrupted by sax, piano, trumpet or any other competing lead instrument.

Whitfield’s 21-year-old drummer, Brian Blade, is a real find. Blade, also a regular in Roberts’ road band, looks like a buttoned-down, MIT engineering major, and he plays drums with the crisp authority of an Elvin Jones or Art Blakey. With Blade powering the music, Whitfield’s solos were full of complex rhythmic changes and a wealth of harmonic and melodic inventions conjured by Whitfield’s amazingly fleet fingers.

The only downside to Thursday night’s shows was that both rooms were less than half full. With about 2.5-million people in the county, it’s difficult to believe that only 30 or 40 fans showed up at each of these shows.

Competition is heating up between these clubs. Satkowski has started advertising on KIFM in an attempt to reach a broader audience for the Jazz Note. He says he will continue to expand the club’s repertoire, as he did with Garson’s appearance. Marienthal, for example, is probably better known to KIFM listeners than to straight-ahead jazz buffs.

Another sign of the competition: When Elario’s talent coordinator Rob Hagey inquired about bringing guitarist Laurindo Almeida to town, he was told Almeida had already committed to four nights next week at another San Diego club: The Jazz Note. Four of Almeida’s shows this weekend will be recorded for a possible live album.

Send up a prayer for San Diego light jazz guitarist Steve Laury, who was diagnosed with lymphoma, a form of cancer, last July. Since then, he’s been laid up at home between chemotherapy treatments. Laury, 38, a former member of Fattburger, struck out on his own last year with a solo debut titled “Stepping Out.” The album stayed at number three on Radio and Records’ contemporary jazz chart for two months. Laury’s second release, “Passion,” is due in January. Now in the midst of six months of chemotherapy, Laury hopes to resume work on his third album in January.

Laurindo Almeida hails from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Ricardo Silveira was born in Rio de Janeiro, just up the country’s eastern seaboard. Two generations apart in age, Almeida and Silveira represent two approaches to melding South American influences with North American jazz.

Almeida, 74, moved to the United States in 1947 and made his initial foray into stateside jazz as a featured soloist with Stan Kenton’s Big Band. In subsequent decades, some of Almeida’s best work was with Bud Shank (1950s), the Modern Jazz Quartet (1960s) and the L.A. Four (1970s and 1980s), as well as on numerous solo albums.

Silveira’s third album of buoyant, Brazilian-flavored light jazz, “Amazon Secrets,” was released last year and climbed to No. 1 on Radio and Records’ contemporary jazz chart. At 34, he takes a slick, funky contemporary approach to north/south fusion, while Almeida prefers a more laid-back traditional sound.

Almeida plays the Jazz Note in Pacific Beach (above Diego’s restaurant) this Thursday through Sunday nights. Silveira appears at Elario’s this Saturday and Sunday nights.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

JOE GARRISON UNLEASHES DEMONS

“Night People and Other Survivors” is San Diego pianist Joe Garrison’s rumination on a variety of troubled souls. If you missed the original performance of Garrison’s rich composition last May at the Marquis Public Theatre, you can hear a recording of that date tonight on KSDS-FM (88.3), from 8 to 9:30. The haunting piece moves through solo piano, highly controlled ensemble work and free-form blowing, and proves once again that Garrison is an unsung original on the local jazz scene.