JAZZ REVIEW : A Double Dip of Guitar Artistry

For anyone interested in the evolution of jazz guitar, now is the time to pick up a wealth of information. All you need to do is catch the set by Joe Pass at the Vine St. Bar & Grill, then walk a couple of blocks to Catalina to study the artistry of Kevin Eubanks.

Aside from the fact that both play electric guitar, the two have nothing in common. Pass, 63, is the definitive no-nonsense virtuoso. Working solo, casual in the extreme, he plays whatever standard tunes come to mind--”Old Folks,” “Indian Summer,” a couple of Django Reinhardt tunes, a fast blues.

Working mainly without a pick, Pass displays the phenomenal technique that has made him the most admired and most recorded guitarist in jazz. On Thursday he was not quite in top form. Playing a new guitar, he seemed a bit ill at ease, but even a subpar Pass is a joy. In his eloquent hands, familiar melodies turn somersaults, disappear, return in a different key and take on a relentlessly swinging new life.

Eubanks, 34, represents a new set of values. His show was less a guitar recital than a glimpse of a triumphant triumvirate, in which the leadership passed from him to bassist David Holland to percussionist Marvin (Smitty) Smith.

The group took 80 minutes to play three extended works: Holland’s “The Winding Way,” an untitled Eubanks original, and the three-part title suite from Eubanks’ recent album “The Turning Point.”

For those who know him only from his fleeting moments in the Branford Marsalis band on “The Tonight Show,” or from some earlier, commercial albums, this avant-garde group is a fresh experience. All three men are superb technicians. Eubanks ranges from the simplest and gentlest repeated phrases to intense chordal flurries. Smith uses everything from cowbells to mini-chimes and countless other unidentified flailing objects to create solos that are truly melodic.

If the trio’s togetherness smacks of ESP, that would have to stand for Endless Sessions of Preparation. The “Turning Point Suite” was a marvelous, heady mix of thematic statement and wild spontaneity.

Pass closes Saturday, Eubanks on Sunday. The study in contrast they provide adds up to an educational and emotional experience.