JAZZ REVIEWS : First-Rate Sidemen Help Make Kyle Eastwood’s Day

Kyle Eastwood may have been born to play the bass. The son of actor Clint, he certainly has the body for it, a tall, thin frame that provides a natural cradle for his instrument, and big hands with long, thin fingers ideal for plucking strings.

In any case, Sunday afternoon and early evening, the 26-year-old led three first-rate sidemen in sets of modern mainstream jazz originals and classics on the poolside terrace of the Hyatt Regency here. The venue was a pleasant one, with ficus trees offering shade and a gentle breeze blowing off the pool past a giant bird of paradise that provided a backdrop for the bandstand.

For the past several years, Eastwood has employed saxophonist Doug Webb, pianist Matt McGuire and drummer Kendall Kay, top Los Angeles-area jazzmen who can create intense improvisational heat at the drop of a downbeat.

On Sunday, as he has in past performances, the less-experienced Eastwood (he has been playing professionally for about five years) pretty much held his own with firm rhythms that fit mostly hand-in-glove with McGuire’s and Kay’s. Eastwood’s big, round sound was especially pleasing at slow and moderate tempos.

During the show, most of which was simulcast on KSBR-FM (88.5), Eastwood took a number of solos, and while it was clear that he is not yet completely comfortable as an improviser, he picked plenty of expansive phrases that revealed a horn man’s fluidity and added others that were punchy and succinct.

He does need to work on his emcee technique. When he uses the microphone, it’s often in a voice too soft for listeners to decipher what he’s saying.

Eastwood and his partners offered an appealing program. The most memorable tunes were the originals, including Eastwood’s “Blues for Graylin.” It was written for his year-old daughter and has a dandy, intricate-as-a-cobweb melody that the bass and sax delivered together. McGuire contributed the bustling “Watch Watch,” which has become a staple of the quartet, and the compelling “Chaff and Grain.”

The latter swayed between a passage built on a pattern that had a funky feel, and a bossa nova section that served as a release. Though the tune wasn’t fast, it was intense as Kay kept pushing the others with bristling, throbbing set work. The ever-impressive Webb delivered his trademark mix of brazen forays (high shimmering trills, vaulting leaps) and whispered phrases, and McGuire played everything from chattering chords to multi-note swirls.

Of the standards, “If I Were a Bell” stood out, highlighted by Webb’s engaging solo, choice, breathy notes that had a singing quality.