JAZZ REVIEW : Steve Turre Shells Out Some Amazing Work

Want to see a man play jazz on a seashell? Check out Steve Turre at Catalina Bar & Grill this week, where the veteran trombonist is demonstrating the amazing possibilities of conch shell jazz improvisation.

At the start of his set Tuesday night, Turre’s music promised, and delivered, some straight-ahead, energetic jazz. Fronting a group of stellar local musicians that included Harold Land, tenor saxophone; Billy Childs, piano; John Clayton, bass; and Tootie Heath, drums, Turre initially stayed with his trombone, romping through a series of solos enlivened by his bold, brassy sound and a hard-swinging rhythmic drive.

He was aided in no small measure by the rhythm section, which came together with a spirited cohesiveness that belied the fact that they rarely work as a unit. Heath and Clayton, in particular, constantly generated counter-rhythms and percussive accents that supplied a kind of compositional foundation to the soloists’ improvising, and Childs’ playing was, as always, filled with creative curiosity and intelligence.

The program really came alive, however, when Turre--who has been a longtime regular in the “Saturday Night Live” orchestra--dipped into a large trunk and began to pull out an array of conch shells. By blowing into one end, and using his free hand to cover the shell’s opening, he was able to alter the pitch sufficiently to do scalular playing.

Turre’s remarkable adeptness was especially apparent in a virtuosic improvisation on “All Blues,” in which he quickly moved from one shell to another--some tiny, some huge--ripping off riffs, interjecting high notes and building a powerful emotional charge. He climaxed the solo by playing two shells at once, in a feat reminiscent of the multi-saxophone efforts of Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

But don’t be misled. Turre, like Kirk, is not a circus act. Entertaining and colorful as his conch shell playing may have been, it also was intensely musical and firmly rooted in jazz. To his credit as a musical artist, he used the shells as a supplement to his trombone work and as an engaging contrast in an evening of persuasive modern jazz.

* Steve Turre Quintet at Catalina Bar & Grill through Sunday, 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. 1640 N. Cahuenga Blvd., (213) 466-2210. $12 cover tonight and Sunday, $15 cover Friday and Saturday, with two-drink minimum.