Werner Finds the Keys to the ‘Master Musician Within’

For decades, pianist Kenny Werner has been on a creative road less traveled. In search of an understanding of musical artistry, he has delved deeply into an array of philosophic and spiritual teachings.

“Picasso,” according to Werner, “once said something like, ‘I spent a few years studying to be a painter, and the rest of my life trying to paint like a child again.’ And all the profound voices have said something similar.”

Werner’s quest has resulted in a book and CD combination, “Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within” (Jamey Aebersold Jazz), which meticulously explores his belief in finding “the level of instinctive movement within ourselves.” On Monday, at Catalina Bar & Grill, he will illustrate his concepts in a two-hour session examining the process of attaining mastery over one’s creative expression. It will be followed by a Werner piano performance.

“I guess my niche,” says Werner, who has recorded and performed with everyone from Charles Mingus and Thad Jones to Joe Lovano and Tom Harrell, “is in preparing this material for musicians with the specific dual purposes of mastering music and freely disseminating it.”

Werner believes that preparation--practicing--should not be “fear-based.”

“In my book,” he explains, “I say you should think of yourself as training yourself so that when the creator wakes up within you and decides to play through you, he won’t trip over your lack of knowledge. In that way, training yourself, or practice, can be seen as an act of worship.”

As well as an inseparable part of the process of making music, of preparing the musician for the “effortless execution of the material.”

“If I don’t have to pay attention to the act of playing--to the mechanics of it--I can create a place within myself,” Werner says. “Once the question is asked, ‘Am I swinging?’ the answer is immediately ‘No.’ Because it’s something that can’t be disturbed by intellect, because the act of making music is a sacred act.”

* Werner presents “Effortless Mastery” at Catalina Bar & Grill, Monday, 7 p.m. 1640 N. Cahuenga Blvd., (213) 466-2210. $25 for presentation and performance. $10 for performance only.

Jazz Vaults: Sony Legacy has announced a new “Live & Legendary!” series of releases that will include restored reissues of classic material, as well as previously unavailable material. The first three albums, scheduled to be issued on March 31: “Miles Davis Live at Carnegie Hall,” from a 1961 concert in which Davis performed with his quintet, as well as with Gil Evans’ 21-piece orchestra; “Thelonious Monk Complete Live at the It Club,” recorded in 1964, with three previously unreleased numbers and 10 other tracks restored to their original unedited length; “Dexter Gordon at Carnegie Hall,” a 1978 event pairing Gordon with Johnny Griffin, available for the first time in its complete form.

Veteran producer Joel Dorn’s 32 Jazz has issued the first product in “The Golden Age of Atlantic Jazz,” a series of six multi-CD sets, each of which will feature four complete LP albums, with remastered sound, new and original liner notes and vintage photographs. The first two releases, now available, are saxophonist Hank Crawford’s “Memphis, Ray & Touch of Moody” and saxophonist David “Fathead” Newman’s “It’s Mister Fathead,” including material that has been out of print for decades. In April, 32 Jazz will release a three-CD Yusef Lateef set and a four-CD Rahsaan Roland Kirk collection. Two-CD sets devoted to Mose Allison and Eddie Harris will be issued in May.