JAZZ REVIEW : Denson Breathes Life and Fire Into New and Old

Anybody who thinks traditional, acoustic mainstream jazz is outdated and dull ought to take a stroll down to the Studio Cafe in Balboa on a Tuesday night when saxophonist Karl Denson and his band are creating major-league musical heat, taking the past and turning it vibrantly into the present.

This week, the El Toro resident and his four side men, all in their 20s and 30s, dove headfirst into four originals and a standard and made each come dramatically, dynamically to life.

Denson, who has played for three years with pop singer Lenny Kravitz and can be heard on trombonist Fred Wesley’s latest Antilles release, writes in the style of the mid-’60s Blue Note sessions; his tunes recall numbers composed by such hard bop giants as Horace Silver, Hank Mobley and Lee Morgan. Though not blues numbers per se, they have a deep-down bluesy swagger, a propulsive swing feeling that can’t help but grab you.

At the same time, pieces such as the exotic “Yusef 28” have an inviting complexity that makes them alluring on a more intellectual level. So one might say that Denson’s music satisfies both the brain and the body--which, after all, is what hard-line mainstream jazz has always been about.

Dressed ever so caj in a T-shirt, cutoff jeans and multicolored sandals, Denson played soprano, alto and tenor saxes, exhibiting a robust and vital sound with each. His substantial technical prowess didn’t get in the way of his musicality, and each solo came out with a sense of flow and completeness, as if he were telling a story.

His cohorts also played their tails off. Trumpeter Jonathan Dane, who was subbing for regular Ron Stout, is a Freddie Hubbard devotee who has grown immeasurably in the last year; he has become a polished, moving improviser.

Pianist Frank Strauss fulfilled two functions: He continually sparked both the rhythm section and the front line with his thought-provoking accompaniment, and when he soloed, he issued series of crackling chords or long lines that swerved and swayed. Bassist Jesse Murphy was solid, keeping the harmonic pulse on course while drummer Tom White kept crisp, direct time that shored the proceedings.

Denson’s “A Minor Skirmish” exemplified his compositional concept. The melody, played by the two horns, began with a muscular, brief rhythmic figure that lead into flowing, convoluted section. Solos followed, then came an out chorus that differed from the opening statement, and then came some free, spontaneous blowing from the horns. Then , suddenly and surprisingly, Denson and Dane restated the original pattern and came to an on-a-dime stop.

“Yusef 28” was even more flavorful, with a definite African influence. This number featured complex, interwoven melodies played over a standard 4/4 time signature cleverly disguised by Murphy’s irregular bass patterns. Denson played alto sax, and during his explosive improvisation delivered peals of notes that threatened to collide with each other before wailing off into the upper range. At times, he offered four or five note phrases, repeating each so rapidly as to make them blur, like smears of color in an abstract painting.

Dane contrasted minimal and maximal, segueing from repeating two-note bursts to swirls of notes. At the piano, Strauss dropped in chords that jostled everyone, establishing the beat in one place and then putting it in another. When he soloed, he used his control of chordal movement to create a wall of pleasing sound.

Selecting tenor sax for “Skirmish,” Denson mixed curving lines, single notes as separate and stiff as soldiers in formation, and bold, blues-bent phrases. “Softly as in a Morning Sunrise,” played jack-rabbit fast, brought the most rewarding evening to a close.

Denson is a musician who knows how to make true and personal statements within a medium that many other artists have abandoned. He proves that within the acoustic jazz framework, there’s still lots of room to move and grow.

* Karl Denson plays Tuesdays from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the Studio Cafe, 100 Main St., Balboa. No cover, no minimum. Information: (714) 675-7760.