DeJohnette Follows Own Drumbeat

“Spirit music” is the way drummer Jack DeJohnette described the sounds of the quartet he brought to Catalina Bar & Grill Tuesday night. The title obviously was taken from his new ECM album, “Dancing With Nature Spirits,” an unexpectedly laid-back collection of atmospheric percussion, keyboards and woodwinds.

But DeJohnette’s current quartet retained only keyboardist Michael Cain from the recording group and added a guitar and percussionist in place of Steve Gorn’s woodwinds. The result had a lot less to do with “spirit music” than it did with the kind of work DeJohnette produced in “Parallel Realities,” a 1990 recording with Pat Metheny and Herbie Hancock.

Which was not at all a bad alternative. And DeJohnette tried, at least, to make a few gestures in the direction of “spirit music” by starting the set with a long, opening number from the ECM album that was filled with scratching percussive sounds and floating, random keyboard and guitar phrases.

But the bulk of the program--which included two pieces from the “Parallel Realities” album--had a more aggressive quality, driven in typically powerful fashion by DeJohnette’s drums, Cain’s crisp piano chording and guitarist-bassist Jerome Harris’ surging bass lines.

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The hazard one faces in drummer-led bands is the very real threat that the dreaded drum solo can turn into the dreaded drum night. But in DeJohnette’s case, his drumming is so musical, so teeming with contrasting rhythms and timbres, that it demands unwavering attention without making a listener’s eyes and ears begin to glaze over.

His extended final solo, for example, a guaranteed prescription for audience exasperation when done by most other drummers, was in fact a fascinating illustration of the manner in which a gifted soloist can blend spontaneous structures with virtuosic displays. In DeJohnette’s swift hands, it was an improvisation that was both a quick course in drum soloing for the many musicians in the nearly full-house crowd and a captivating musical excursion for the jazz fans.

It wasn’t exactly “spirit music,” but it was first-rate jazz from a drummer who wisely refuses to confine his considerable talents within the traditional narrow definitions of his instrument.

* Jack DeJohnette Quartet at Catalina Bar & Grill through Sunday. 1640 N. Cahuenga Blvd., (213) 466-2210. $15 cover tonight and Sunday, $20 cover Friday and Saturday, with two-drink minimum. DeJohnette performs two shows nightly, at 8:30 and 10:30.