JAZZ REVIEW : Old Friends Take a Strum Down Memory Lane

Until they took the stage Thursday at El Matador, guitarists Dave Murdy and Larry Koonse hadn’t played together for more than a year. So, to celebrate--they’ve known each other for more than a decade--they yacked their heads off. Musically, that is.

Murdy, a versatile fellow who is a member of the Strange, an alternative-rock trio, was the more verbose. Seated on a stool and crossing his right leg over his left to support his Aria Herb Ellis model guitar--a burnt-umber-colored, hollow-bodied instrument--the hirsute Murdy delivered long lines, stringing brief ideas into chains of vibrant sound. Now and then he selected choppy, rhythmic ideas that packed a dandy punch. While the intensity of his improvisations occasionally was overbearing, he nonetheless played a lot of choice statements.

Less chatty was Koonse, an acoustic-jazz stalwart who has toured with Mel Torme and Cleo Laine. (He appears Tuesday with Ravi Coltrane at Le Cafe in Sherman Oaks and on Wednesday at Oysters in Corona del Mar.)

He, too, sat on a stool, also crossed his right leg over his left to balance his sand-colored Ibanez George Benson model instrument. Koonse employed a generous space between fluid lines that were deftly crafted. Sometimes he would let sustained notes ring, at other moments, as did his partner, he let loose strings of be-bop oriented ideas like a flock of birds suddenly taking to the air.

Backed with elan by bassist Ben May, who also offered many first-rate improvisations, and drummer Dave Anderson, the guitarists worked with remarkably divergent tones. Murdy, who keeps his feet in the rock world via appearances with the Strange and other rock bands, had a buoyant yet slightly edgy, gritty sound, the kind of tone that makes you think a sizzle of sparks might burst from his instrument.

Koonse’s sound was more like a blanket: soft and comforting. Yet this blanket was adorned with sequins, so that its warmth and roundness was coupled with a compelling brightness.

This pairing, in other words, was defined more by the participants’ differences than their similarities, but Murdy and Koonse’s high degree of musicality and their sense of personal style brought off this let’s-contrast affair nicely.

Familiar favorites comprised the six-song first set: Charlie Parker’s “Billie’s Bounce,” Keith Jarrett’s “Lucky Southern,” Sonny Rollins’ “St. Thomas,” Toots Thielemans’ “Bluesette” and the standards “There Will Never Be Another You” and “Stella By Starlight.”

The brisk line of “Billie’s Bounce” was played in unison by the leaders, and that classic blues led to “St. Thomas.”

Both numbers emphasized the guitarists’ diverse approaches. On the bouncy, medium-fast “St. Thomas,” Murdy soloed first, offering a series of winding, flowing statements before going with interval leaps that landed on a high note that he held, almost the way a child clutches a prized doll. His aural attack continued with more strands of tones, and he sometimes played, as John Coltrane once said of his own work, as if he was “trying to get it all in.”

When Koonse soloed, there was an immediate difference. From his very first notes, his sound was in stark relief to his cohort’s, and his manner of not trying to drive home his ideas was refreshing. Not that Murdy was too rough and tumble, just that Koonse was like a breath of fresh air after Murdy’s hot wind.

Koonse was sure-footed rhythmically, shifting with apparent ease from cohesive, up-and-down garlands to ideas that were out of step with the rhythmic pulse. He could jump back and forth from these conceptual modes, and he added spice by playing some swinging chordal passages.

The rest of the set was as fulfilling as the first two numbers. It would be interesting to hear what Murdy and Koonse have to say to each other in six months.