Brown in Sync With Youthful Green

Ray Brown and Benny Green are a mutual admiration duo. On stage at Catalina Bar & Grill Tuesday night in the opening set of a six-night run for the Brown trio, the veteran bassist and the youthful pianist were a study in musical camaraderie.

Brown, a stolid, magisterial figure as he approaches his 70th birthday next month, smiled benignly as his surging bass lines offered buoyant support for Green’s irrepressibly effervescent solos. Green, in return, frequently shifted around on his piano bench to face Brown, offering cheerleading shouts of encouragement as the bassist ripped off solos filled with long strings of his characteristically riff-driven phrases.

After the show, Green, who is 33 but looks 10 years younger, said: “I’ve been working in Ray’s trio for more than four years now, and it’s still an eye-opening experience, playing with him.”

Brown, a bit less effusive with his words, was no less complimentary with his praise for Green: “He’s really something, isn’t he?”

Short and to the point, perhaps, but high approval coming from a performer with Brown’s musical background. His big, robust sound, urgent drive and solid musicality have set high standards for contemporary rhythm section playing.

The trio format works particularly well for Brown, since it allows him to display every aspect of his skills. Typically, numbers such as the grooving “Chris Craft” and “Bam, Bam, Bam” unfolded with an opening line and a Green solo leading to a centerpiece improvisation by Brown. Despite the regularity of the structures, however, interaction between the players--with Greg Hutchison’s superb drumming playing a significant role--was persistently spontaneous.

At one spot during a Brown solo, Green laid down a walking bass line on the low notes of the piano. At another time, he simply sat without playing, nodding his head, grinning, uttering, “Yeah, Ray, yeah!,” and encouraging an already enthusiastic audience to applaud Brown’s work.

In a lovely, lyrical rendering of the old standard “I’ve Got a Crush on You,” Brown took a somewhat different tack, inserting the song’s elegant verse in the middle of the performance. Finally, magnanimously, he showcased Green in a roaring, up-tempo, take-no-captives romp through “Who Cares.”

“Ray’s a generous guy, musically, “ Green said. “There’s almost 40 years difference in age between us, but we still speak the same musical language.”

Brown was clearly receptive to the inevitable signs of growth and change that are occasionally presented by Green and Hutchison. In the passages in which Green probed into unfamiliar jazz territory, Brown was musically on board, ready and willing to take the trip.

Smiling quietly, he summed it all up with a brief comment. “I just keep hanging in there,” Brown said, with typical benevolent understatement, “trying to make sure I can keep up with these young guys.”

* The Ray Brown Trio at Catalina Bar & Grill through Sunday. 1640 N. Cahuenga Blvd., (213) 466-2210. $13 cover tonight and Sunday; $16 cover Friday and Saturday, with two-drink minimum. Brown performs two shows nightly, at 8:30 and 10:30.