JAZZ REVIEWS : Trio Showcases Its Leader’s Skills

Alan Broadbent, whose trio played Saturday at the Jazz Bakery, is the epitome of pianistic elegance.

The New Zealand-born musician, who came to prominence writing and playing for the Woody Herman Orchestra in the 1970s, has developed into a soloist who manages to combine swinging ease with strikingly effective technique.

Whether his material is drawn from the standard repertory, such as Harry Warren’s 1936 song “Summer Night,” or from his own library of originals (he wrote and recorded “The Long Goodbye” for Charlie Haden’s Quartet West), Broadbent retains an individual character.

His version of “Body and Soul’ began somewhat floridly, using broken chords, then moved into an ingenious passage for which the left hand carried the melody while he introduced a contrapuntal theme with the right hand. Later he began a pattern of rhythmic multiplication, doubling and redoubling in a phenomenal conjunction of beauty and the beat.

Putter Smith, his bassist, functioned well as a group member and competently in his solos. Bill Mintz on drums supplied a firm pulse as a group member, but was accorded an excessively long and pointless solo workout.

Broadbent has played without accompaniment on some of his best recorded work, but in its more cohesive moments, this trio provides him with a setting that does justice to his considerable talent.