POP AND JAZZ REVIEWS : Fusion of Another Sort at the Bakery

The joint appearance at the Jazz Bakery of pianist Fred Hersch and the Greene String Quartet danced gracefully along the thin line that separates (or sometimes unites) chamber music and jazz.

Violinist Richard Greene led the quartet Friday in a set that displayed its choice eclecticism. The conventional opener, “Harlem Nocturn,” contrasted with the more challenging “Vortex,” an original work by Devan Manson.

The concluding “Blue Set” best displayed the musicians’ ability to achieve a chamber-jazz fusion.

All four movements were based on variations of the blues form, with a potent undercurrent supplied by the group’s new member, cellist Armen Ksajikian. Jimbo Ross on viola and Margaret Wooten on violin both met the demands of this work’s shifting tempos and moods.

Fred Hersch is rapidly gaining recognition as a pianist and composer who has worked successfully in a broad variety of contexts. Heard with the quartet as well as in solos, he played everything from a Scriabin prelude to his own ethereal “Heart Song.” At one point, he brought on Ksajikian for a duet of his own “Tango Bitter Sweet” that offered warmly affecting evidence of the cellist’s mastery with the bow. Less successful were his attempts, during some of the quartet numbers, to fill the role of a pizzicato jazz string bass.