JAZZ REVIEW : Kikuya Becomes Filling-In Station for Guerrero and Company

If you turned up at Kikuya Restaurant here Saturday night in the hopes of hearing cornetist Bill Berry play and were disappointed, you had plenty of company. Even the rhythm section arrived thinking they’d be backing the Duke Ellington veteran and leader of the Bill Berry L.A. Big Band.

But Berry, who canceled earlier on the day of the performance, was home in North Hollywood feeling under the weather. Also missing was guitarist Doug MacDonald’s trio, which had ducked out several days earlier because of a scheduling conflict. MacDonald had found a replacement trio, but, because of the last-minute nature of Berry’s cancellation, even they had no idea that veteran jazzman wouldn’t show--at least not until Berry’s replacement, trumpeter-fluegelhornist Tony Guerrero arrived on the scene.

If that didn’t make this date a spontaneous enough affair, the fact that most of the quartet had never met made the chances of success even more unlikely. Though everyone in the group seemed to know bassist Harry Smith, it was the first time Guerrero, drummer Joe Correro Jr. and pianist Jimmy Dykes had met.

As the group assembled on the bandstand, we couldn’t help but recall a concert held about 20 years ago in Minneapolis. Drummer Buddy Miles was to be the headliner and the small university district club was filled with fans. But when it came time for Miles to make an appearance, the person who came out was someone entirely different. Granted, this impostor was portly like Miles and topped with an impressive Afro, though it looked to be a wig. But when he sat down at the drum set, well. . . .

The crowd at that show responded with boos before chasing the phony Miles from the stage and trashing the establishment. Luckily, there was no such behavior at Kikuya. And for good reason.

Guerrero put the audience at ease early on as he deadpanned, “You probably heard that Bill Berry would be playing here tonight. Well, we’ll do anything to draw a crowd.”

And anyone who had turned up at the club to hear a sound set of jazz was not disappointed.

The put-together nature of the affair limited the material to the familiar standards as the four new friends sought common ground. But each tune, no matter how familiar, was given plenty of personality as the foursome projected their own identities while establishing a musical whole.

Guerrero led the way in developing different types of character as he worked on muted and open trumpet and fluegelhorn. There were moody, Miles Davis references in his muted playing and plenty of be-bop and blues inflections, especially on an up-tempo version of “My Secret Love.”

His fluegelhorn work compared less favorably, notably on “Paper Moon.” But slow the tempo down, as he did on “My Romance,” and the warm, intimate nature of the larger instrument came through. With plunger mute, he developed a range of growls, snarling blues phrases and wah-wah effects that were appropriate to the Thelonious Monk material he was playing.

Pianist Dykes and bassist Smith both made strong impressions. Each is a capable soloist with an ear for the melodic, and both showed a knack for developing a story line. Drummer Correro played to a tune’s dynamics, stirring up fine backing with his brushes while soloing in a direct, to-the-beat style.

You wouldn’t expect everything to fit together perfectly, given the come-together nature of this performance.

But the play went smoothly, with only few exceptions as a solo wandered on too long or the four looked for a way to gracefully close a tune.

If jazz is the music of spontaneity, then this was a very jazzy session indeed.