JAZZ REVIEW : Young Trio Backs Carter

Singer Betty Carter, who kicked off her career singing with Lionel Hampton’s band in the late ‘40s, brought a very young backing trio into the Catalina Bar & Grill Tuesday.

It featured 28-year-old pianist Jacky Terrasson, winner last month of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz’s annual instrumental competition. Her bassist, Larry Grenadier, is 27 and drummer Avester Garnett is 23. They’ve worked with Carter for only the last three weeks. If the vocalist’s opening set of a six-day run was less than perfect, blame it on the youngsters.

That’s not to say that Carter’s accompanying threesome wasn’t capable. In a pair of opening numbers without the singer, Terrasson demonstrated a brisk, sometimes rebellious way at the keyboard, rife with harmonic playfulness and sudden dynamic shifts. Bassist Grenadier is a solid foundations builder with a clever knack for echoing a soloist’s ideas. And drummer Garnett, though not a strongly confident player, provided tasteful time-keeping sprinkled with off-beat rhythmic variations.

But with Carter on the bandstand, the three seemed less sure of themselves. Always one to twist a melody into her own image, at times she seemed to confound her trio with tempo swings and improvisational mischief. “Every night’s a learning experience,” she quipped from the stage while she coached and cajoled.

Though the educational process seemed to rein the singer in at times, Carter still managed to fill the set with her trademark slides, swoops and low-register reverberations. When the band found the groove, as it often did, the promise of great things to come filled the room.