Davis’ ‘Happy Valley Blues’ a Study in Musical Contrasts

At the core of composer-pianist Anthony Davis’ chamber piece, “Happy Valley Blues,” given its premiere West Coast performance at the Cerritos Center Saturday, is a stout bass line, the kind of foundation that frequently anchors jazz composition.

But surrounding that core are sections without rhythmic anchor, freely improvised exchanges between piano, violin, guitar and bass that impart a feeling of uncertainty and disharmony. The contrast with the piece’s more predictable center not only gave the work its straight yet strange character, but served to define the evening’s entire program as well, as numbers from Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington shared time with heavily improvised, decidedly modern excursions written by Davis or the members of the accompanying String Trio Of New York.

The foursome framed familiar tunes, such as “Caravan,” and “Ruby My Dear,” with sections that looked more to the improvisational experiments of the ‘70s New York loft scene than to the original works. But, at their heart, was a devotion to the intent of Ellington and Monk.

“Evidence” was an exception, with a seemingly rhythmless exchange between the four instruments before they arrived at a disjointed presentation of Monk’s already quirky theme. By contrast, “Ruby My Dear” was given an almost straight treatment, led by guitarist James Emery’s pulse and violinist Regina Carter’s melancholy reading of the theme.

The evening’s most ambitious numbers were written by members of the trio, including Carter’s “Hurry Up and Wait” and Emery’s “Cobalt Blue.’ On one piece written by bassist John Lindberg, the three used wooden sticks to strike their strings, giving the number a percussive, somewhat metallic feel.

Davis’ other major composition presented here, a solo piano piece entitled “Five Moods From an English Garden,” ranged between quiet, considered sections and rumbling displays of cacophony that were apocalyptic in their effect. The collaboration between the pianist and the string trio provided an emotionally rewarding, though sometimes unsettling experience on the plane where jazz-styled improvisation meets the slippery rhythms and uneasy discord of 20th century composition.