JAZZ REVIEW : Silver’s Brass Glitters at Catalina

Pianist Horace Silver is not a man who believes in sitting on his laurels.

Ever in search of musical adventure, Silver has been assembling new compositions lately for an eight-piece ensemble he calls the Silver Brass. He brought it to the Catalina Bar & Grill on Tuesday for an engagement that continues through Sunday, and added special guests saxophonist Red Holloway and singer Andy Bey for good measure. The result was an evening of joyously swinging mainstream jazz.

Much of the music was new, specifically tailored for the six-brass, three-rhythm-instrument group. Among the more attractive works were the up-tempo “Yo Mama’s Mambo,” a ballad called “When You’re in Love” and a hard-grooving “It’s Got to Be Funky Every Time.”

In general, the ensemble passages were smoothly mellow, and often piquant with spicy, unexpected harmonic dissonances. Silver used the brass for opening and closing theme statements, as well as occasional accenting, but the real focus was on his piano work and Holloway’s blues-driven saxophone stylings.

Silver’s soloing is still the colorful collage of be-bop licks, Caribbean rhythms, quotes from other songs, and sheer exuberant energy that it’s been for the last 40 years.

Holloway--one of the jazz’s most unacknowledged talents--made the most of his few showcase spots, peaking with an alto chorus on “Basically Blue” that was a plain and simple definition of soul.