Artists’ Connection Results in a Show Full of Creative Joy

Intuition, interaction and intelligence have always been key elements in the work of the best jazz ensembles. Regardless of the group’s style--from Louis Armstrong’s Hot Fives to the Miles Davis bands of the ‘50s to Weather Report and Return to Forever--the success of the music has flowed from the musically intelligent, intuitive interaction that has taken place between players.

On Sunday afternoon, in a Chamber Music in Historic Sites concert at Union Station, pianist Monty Alexander, bassist John Clayton and drummer Jeff Hamilton added another element to the mix: creative joy. Although the trio had performed together only rarely over the past decade, they came together with a feeling of exhilaration, of sheer pleasure in the process of working with one another, that palpably reached out to embrace the large, intensely appreciative audience.

Alexander’s infrequent appearances in the Southland (he was here five years ago for a Historic Sites program) have made him relatively unfamiliar to many local fans. But the 52-year-old, Jamaican-born pianist is a certified jazz master. Because of his fiery articulation, he was identified in his early years with Oscar Peterson, but Alexander quickly began to establish his own musical persona by adding funk and soul elements to his performance arsenal. In recent years, he has added even more appealing colorations to his playing by underscoring many of his original pieces with jaunty Caribbean dance rhythms.

All of those elements were amply present at the Union Station concert. Alexander’s piano technique, his ability to move around the keyboard, to generate constantly surprising harmonies and exquisite tonal responses, was never less than thrilling. Clayton played, as he always does, with the perception and intelligence of a composer, never playing a false note, his every contribution adding an element to the overall picture. And Hamilton, who is as comfortable with a trio as he is with a big band, once again revealed a brilliant capacity to perfectly adjust his musical drumming to the size of the group.

But all these contributory aspects soon became--as they should in any artistically creative presentation--the setting, rather than the substance. And when Alexander, Clayton and Hamilton surged through a pair of too-brief sets of standards and originals, it was their astonishingly symbiotic interplay, the manner in which the creative energy flowed freely between them, the sheer joy of performance, that made the program one of the year’s thus-far finest jazz events.