From Sideman to Star

Pianist Benny Green arrived at Catalina Bar & Grill Tuesday night on the crest of his outspoken desire to “take my music into some more interesting areas.”

After years in which his outstanding talents were somewhat shaded by super-sideman stints with Betty Carter, Art Blakey and Ray Brown, Green is now actively emerging with an impressive star quality of his own. The opening set of his six-night run at Catalina revealed that his playing is evolving well beyond the attractive but fairly proscribed style present in recent appearances with Brown.

In a program that ranged from Green originals such as “The Sexy Mexy” to John Coltrane’s “Mr. P.C.,” Green soloed with an impressive degree of authority. Always retaining the propulsive sense of swing that is essential to his music, he added rich, rhapsodic chording reminiscent of McCoy Tyner and rapid-fire, ever-active right-hand runs. On an unannounced slow blues, his phrasing was drenched with the slow-drag articulation of the urban blues style.

Ironically, Green’s only problem lay with his extraordinary versatility. He can do so many things so well that it was sometimes difficult to hear through to the center of his musical personality. His burst of creative liberation is clearly a necessary step in his career, but Green needs to gather his many skills into a more centered, more personally compelling form of expression.

Two “guest stars” with the Green trio added some spice to the program, not always with the same degree of success. Guitarist Russell Malone is a talent on the verge of breaking out. Although he’s been around for a while (most visibly with Harry Connick Jr.), he has only recently begun to display star quality. His lovely solo rendering of “Alfie” was one of the highlights of the opening set.

Saxophonist Antonio Hart, also a young veteran, added plenty of fire and fury to the set, often generating enthusiastic applause. But Hart’s playing was monochromatic, based too strongly upon a profusion of notes and an emotional expression that seemed to be stuck within a narrow arena of musical pugnacity. Like Green, he is a talented artist in search of a creative identity--a quest that will have to include a much broader view of the emotional potential of jazz improvisation before it can fully succeed.

These carps aside, Green’s weeklong run affords a fine opportunity to check out a number of talented jazzmen on the threshold of important careers.

BE THERE

The Benny Green Trio, 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. Green performs two shows nightly.