JAZZ REVIEW : Hughes, Friends Get Into Swing of Things

Jazz standards are always on the bill of fare when bassist-impresario Luther Hughes and his guest artist du jour strike up the assembled band at El Matador restaurant. But standards of a different genre were the day’s special Friday when guitarist Terry Wollman joined a beat-minded edition of Hughes’ trio in a decidedly contemporary-flavored outing.

Wollman, musical director for the syndicated “Byron Allen Show,” actually served up a larger helping of his own material, some of it pulled from his 3-year-old Nova recording “Bimini.” Yet the tastiest of his offerings were a pair of vintage pop tunes that received rhythmic touch-ups as well as a good salting of improvisation. Who says rock can’t swing?

Adding to the stew was John Gilutin, a keyboardist and film composer who’s traveled with Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor but hadn’t played with Wollman before. Also on hand was session drummer Joel Taylor, whose propulsive sense of rhythm kept things cooking. Throw in Hughes’ funky but melodic bass lines--he’s always at his liveliest backing more aggressive types of contemporary music--and you had a potent little combo.

The group gave Lennon and McCartney’s “Norwegian Wood” a night-and-day treatment, giving an almost straight-ahead reading of the tune’s melody before turning the bridge into a driving waltz that gave way to a lush, spirited solo from Wollman on his electric ax. Gilutin pulled an acoustic keyboard sound from his synthesizer to work well-spaced, yet insistent lines that were anchored by his precise left-hand chords. Taylor soloed by sending echoing rolls from his tom-tom over claps from his hi-hat cymbal before swinging back into the number’s theme.

The quartet was right to give little in the way of additional rhythmic dress to Marvin Gaye’s “What Going On”--Gaye’s original treatment swings along at a pace just right for introspective soloing. Wollman, again on electric, tuned into the song’s sensibilities with hip, singing lines delivered with a tone of optimism. Gilutin added depth by mixing in string section chords from his keyboard.

In contrast to the evening’s later successes, the set opened with a drab, directionless reading of the title tune from Wollman’s CD, a saccharine ballad that Wollman played on acoustic. The four men seemed to spend the entire tune circling around each other, trying to find common ground without much luck. It wasn’t until sometime in the second number, “Walk the Line,” that a kind of understanding was reached and things began to click. Wollman’s short improvisation, though far from ambitious, was rich and heart-felt. Hughes, soloing at the top-end of his instrument’s range, balanced concise, snappy lines against longer, more resonant statements.

The band took off for good on Wollman’s “Son of Boogie,” a piece written for “walk-ons” during the Allen show (played as guests come out on stage). The tune built on Hughes’ funky bass line, with Wollman suspending sharp acoustic chords above the vamp. The guitarist switched to electric for backup duties during Gilutin’s solo, a move that opened up the tune’s rhythmic foundations. The piece was a showcase for Taylor’s style as the drummer drove hard behind Wollman’s improvisations and added a snappy, military-like snare roll to Hughes’ play.