Jazz Review : Gurtu’s Delightful Display of Percussion

A performance from Trilok Gurtu is a visual as well as audible delight.

Seated on the floor amid a small forest of cymbals, drums and other noisemakers, the Bombay-born percussionist--a veteran of work with guitarist John McLauglin, trumpeter Don Cherry and fellow percussionist Nana Vasconcelos--put on an astonishing display to a capacity crowd at LunaPark on Monday as he scooted around inside his circle of instruments, sometimes rising to his knees for a particularly muscular passage, gesturing with his hands to accent the vocal rhythms he generated, all the while throwing sidelong glances at his band mates.

A master of both rhythm and tonal color, Gurtu invariably found the perfect sound, played at the perfect time, to shade his decidedly contemporary music. The tunes, mostly pulled from his recent release “Believe,” blended Gurtu’s earthy percussion with electric bass and guitar, synthesizer and acoustic piano in a hybrid that recalled the plugged-in gloss of Weather Report as well as the pastoral moods of acoustic ensemble Oregon.

Much of the music’s glassy texture came from unison play generated by guitarist David Gilmore and keyboardist Daniel Goyone. The contrast between guitar and keyboard improvisations showed the dual roots of this music, with Gilmore’s rock-based phrasing standing firm against Goyone’s more jazz-influenced play.

Goyone’s “Vak” struck the perfect balance between electric and acoustic schools.

Guitarist David Torn, who opened the show solo, dealt in no such dichotomies. Standing against a wall of amplifiers and other electronic equipment, Torn assembled rich panoramas of sound to frame electric lines that came as icy screams or fuzzy reverb.

Even when covering tunes from Muddy Waters or Jimi Hendrix, Torn’s attack created disturbing, sonic mosaics colored here and there with moments of true grace and beauty.

Although not for every taste, Torn is a true wizard, someone who finds mystical potential in every electrically generated sound.