JAZZ REVIEW : Blanchard Quintet Blows Hot and Cold

Trumpeter Terence Blanchard blew hot and cold in a hit-and-miss set Wednesday night at the Strand in Redondo Beach. His quintet’s music was alternately marked by emotional warmth and scholarly detachedness. You expected a little more from one of the top young players in jazz.

The New Orleans-based musician, a former Art Blakey sideman who composed the music for filmmaker Spike Lee’s “ ‘Mo Better Blues” as well as his upcoming movie “Malcolm X”, sometimes created personal, moving statements. This appealing side of the 29-year-old Blanchard’s playing was showcased on two oozingly slow tunes, “Goodbye” and an original dedicated to Miles Davis.

On these numbers, the leader offered a pure, round sound and ideas--from half-swallowed notes to colorful ascending passages--that embraced the composition’s melody. But on “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You,” featured on his recent “Terence Blanchard” album on Columbia Records, he too often avoided that song’s harmonic constructs and delivered angular, edgy statements that lacked meaning.

Tenor saxophonist Sam Newsome was, likewise, an inconsistent soloist. He scored with crisp, well-spaced ideas on the Miles dedication, but elsewhere often opted for long strings of notes where briefer, more musical snatches were needed. Pianist Bruce Barth was generally persuasive, employing a robust rhythmic attack that galvanized his supporting partners--bassist Rodney Whitaker and drummer Billy Kilson--and generated some of the set’s best moments.

Overall, Blanchard’s mix of modernity and melody has a lot going for it. Perhaps with time, he’ll work out the rough spots.