MUSIC REVIEW : Flutist Newton Performs Under the Green Umbrella

In the last month, area concertgoers have been treated to an unofficial survey of noted jazz adventurers who have found gainful employment in Southern California academia. We’ve heard from trumpeter Leo Smith, now at CalArts, and trombonist George Lewis, now at UC San Diego.

At Monday night’s Green Umbrella concert at the Japan America Theatre, the guest of honor was flutist-composer and UC Irvine faculty member James Newton. The concert’s second half was devoted to the L.A. premiere of Newton’s ambitious 1992 piece “The Line of Immortality,” scored for chamber ensemble and his own quartet, with bassist Darek Oleskiewicz, drummer Sonship Theuss, and pianist Jon Jang.

Here, Newton mixes Eurocentric, post-Bergian scoring for the classical contingent with rumbling improvisational passages for jazz quartet. Gradually, the forces on stage find common ground.

The concert also featured the world premiere of Charles Dodge’s “The One and the Other.” Like a black sheep in the minimalist lineage, the work is a definitive study of contrasts, generating considerable momentum and mystery from simple phrases laid at odds with each other.

Opening was Steven Mackey’s “Indigenous Instruments” (1989), which borrows from a dizzying array of sources. Microtonality, jaunty folkishness, Morton Feldman’s metaphysics and clankety early jazz can be detected. But what makes this one of the finest compositions of the last five years is the freshness of outlook Mackey digs out from under the rubble of his--and all of our--culled influences. With this, Mackey may have painted his masterpiece.