O.C. JAZZ REVIEW : Explosion Has a Blast : Superband Members Fuse Fusion With Tight Teamwork at Coach House

Bring four of jazz-fusion’s best-known headliners together in one group and you get a first-rate clash of egos and all the one-upmanship that goes with it, right?

Not with the Jazz Explosion Superband. Drummer Billy Cobham, guitarist Larry Carlton, bassist Stanley Clarke and saxophonist Najee seemed more intent on working as a group than as individuals during their first set Thursday at the Coach House. Indeed, so magnanimous were the four that they treated a fifth band member, relatively unknown keyboard player Deron Johnson, to nearly the same amount of improvisational space they gave themselves.

The band, which matched a pair of standards with numbers selected from each of the members’ careers, was at its best mining stripped-down funk beats or simple blues lines. To its credit, the group avoided the usual fusion histrionics. Instead, solos were well-formed, sometimes technically astute efforts that avoided cheap appeals to emotion.

The opening number, “Good-bye Porkpie Hat,” Charles Mingus’ tribute to Lester Young, didn’t really suggest the pleasures that would follow. The familiar, melancholy theme, stated in unison by Carlton, Najee on soprano and Clarke on electric bass, dissolved into a predictable riff that had little to do with the tune’s melody.

For his solo, Najee switched to a wind-controlled synthesizer, a device that resembles a clarinet and is played the same way. The electronic tones he generated were hot enough to sear nylon, but they wandered aimlessly. Carlton, getting a smeared sound full of reverb from his guitar, likewise contributed little to the distinguished tune.

But all that turned around during the second number, “Stratus,” pulled from a Cobham album from 1973. The drummer worked up the two-beat groove from an array of tom-toms and cymbals, whereupon Clarke began steaming away on the modal bass line.

Najee, this time on tenor, worked up an impressive array of phrases that twisted and turned during a long dynamic build. To his credit, he took his work much more seriously than such competitors as Kenny G and Dave Koz and did not resort to long displays of squawks, squeals and other up-register mayhem to make his point. His tenor took a more intimate approach to his own, samba-paced “Buenos Aires.”

Najee’s flute work during Miles Davis’ “All Blues” was equally astute as he built long swirling lines, one upon another, before bringing his improvisation to a melodic close. Carlton took his best solo of the evening during this tune, adding well-carved lines and occasional spurts of Wes Montgomery-style chording.

Clarke, on upright, and Carlton teamed for a rousing blues driven by the bassist’s gut-bucket beat. Again and again during his solo Clarke turned to the same, finger-snapped note, often placing it in unexpected spots, creating a comic effect wildly received by the sold-out crowd.

Cobham, working a smorgasbord of tom-toms and cymbals, added rock-steady beats generously sprinkled with snare and, occasionally, electronic percussion effects. His well-known press rolls pealed like thunder across the changes, and his powerful bass sound, kicked out from a pair of the big drums, showed that he still has the strongest feet in jazz (with the possible exception of Tony Williams).

Only during the final number, Clarke’s “School Days,” did the band resort to endless riffing and pointless, up-register excitement. Until then, Johnson had proven a tasteful, imaginative keyboardist, adding synthesizer wash in accompaniment and intelligent improvisations during “All Blues” and “Stratus.” Soloing on “School Days,” he succumbed to predictable licks and showy, bent-note displays.

The Jazz Explosion Superband concludes its current tour tonight at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.