JAZZ REVIEW : Earning Some Big Fans : Poncho Sanchez came to see guitarist Bobby Redfield at Cafe Lido. Was Redfield unnerved? Hardly. He just kept churning out his infectious Latin sound.

Imagine you’re the leader of a Latin jazz combo on stage one evening at, say, the Cafe Lido, grinding out a nice litte cha-cha groove in front of a respectable crowd as a pair of couples step across the modest dance floor. And then you look over to the entrance and see El Conguero himself, Poncho Sanchez, come into the room. Gulp! Now what?

If you’re guitarist Bobby Redfield, you nod and smile at your old friend as he walks past the bandstand on his way to a table, and you keep right on churning.

Redfield, who worked a number of years with percussionist Sanchez in Cal Tjader’s band, didn’t have to change a thing during Thursday’s first set at the Lido with his old band mate in the audience.

Even before the arrival of the conga master (Sanchez had played earlier in the day at Fashion Island Newport Beach), Redfield was delivering contagiously rhythmic dance and standard treatments.

Sanchez and Tjader aren’t the only well-known names Redfield has worked with. He also spent considerable time with respected composer and keyboardist Clare Fischer, and his list of credits stretches from saxophonist Art Pepper to the Righteous Brothers. In the ‘50s he studied with legendary be-bop pianist Joe Albany.

Deepening the Sanchez connection was the presence of pianist Charles Otwell in Redfield’s ensemble. Otwell was Sanchez’s first music director and spent 10 years in his band. With this kind of experience between them, you’d expect Redfield and Otwell to deliver the goods. And they did.

Playing a well-worn ‘40s-vintage Epiphone instrument, Redfield produced clean, even tones that shone against a strong percussive pulse produced by Otwell, bassist Ernie Nunez, drummer Jonathan Dresel and percussionist Raphael Feliciano.

The guitarist opened Fischer’s “Morning” with a warm reading of the simple theme before spinning off a series of lines that seemed to accelerate as they progressed. He varied this approach with an occasional burst of two-note chordal phrases and emphatic strumming with his thumb.

Otwell worked the tune’s short melodic lines, expanding them with flourishes and ascending clumps of notes, all backed by danceably rhythmic left-hand support. The pianist also showed his skill at utilizing space, adding surprising moments of silence to his phrasing, moments that served the same purpose as punctuation in a sentence.

An uptempo version of “You Stepped Out of a Dream,” with drummer Dresel stirring up a nice shuffle on his hi-hat cymbal, found Redfield at his warmest, playing with a considered reserve over the insistent rhythm.

Otwell, who truly uses the piano as a percussive as well as a harmonic instrument, bolstered the beat with sharply cut chords and echoes of Redfield’s phrases.

The pianist took his best solo of the set during the number, an improvisation featuring lines that ended in sharp exclamations, with a little dissonance thrown in to stir up the pot.

Redfield’s best moments came on Horace Silver’s “Nica’s Dream,” his solo carrying some of the funky feel of Silver’s original. Bassist Nunez worked the bottom like a scavenging catfish, pushing the tunes with propulsive underpinnings that relied little on flash. Dresel’s drumming was dependable, if not inventive, throughout.

With Sanchez in the audience, percussionist Feliciano must have been feeling some pressure during his feature on Victor Feldman’s “Siesta Celebration.”

If so, he didn’t show it. Feliciano worked up a rippling display that was as notable for its rhythmic variety as it was for its aggressiveness. And say, wasn’t that El Conguero himself applauding after the number?

* Bobby Redfield’s quintet, with pianist Liz Kinnon, plays from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Aug. 31 at Prego, 18420 Von Karman Ave., Irvine. (714) 553-1333.