Drumming Puts Pianist Allen Off-Kilter

It was pianist Geri Allen’s opening night at the Jazz Bakery on Tuesday, but there were times in the opening set when drummer Ralph Penland seemed to be leading the trio. The acoustics at the Bakery have never favored intense drumming, but that didn’t seem to faze Penland. Although he has worked the room many times, he played the first two or three tunes in the aggressive style of a drummer bandleader--that is, with the sound and fury of the drums up front and everything else behind.

Allen did the best she could with the array of percussive sounds, but her own somewhat busy style--at least in the more up-tempo numbers--simply contributed to the general murkiness of the music. Bassist Robert Hurst managed to maintain a solid pulse, but his sound, more often than not, was virtually unheard in the clattery audio mix.

Fortunately, by the time Allen got around to playing “Sleepin’ Pretty” from her new Verve album, “The Gathering,” the intensity of the energy had somewhat subsided. And Hurst, in a featured role, brought a thoughtful and much needed sense of balance to the music. “Daybreak and Dreams,” another tune from the album, was equally appealing.

Allen is an enormously versatile player, fully comfortable with styles ranging from lyrical balladry to edgy avant-garde. And once past the noisy uncertainties of the set’s opening minutes, her playing began to blossom. But the attractive moments came in bits and pieces, a consequence perhaps of her versatility, of a still uncertain sense of individuality in her music.

She was at her best when she moved past the quick-fingered technique and the too-predictable dependency upon rootless accompaniment accents into a simpler, more direct kind of melodic lyricism. In those passages--relatively rare in this set--Allen revealed her very real potential to emerge as a world-class jazz pianist.

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* The Geri Allen Trio at the Jazz Bakery, through Sunday. 3233 Helms Ave., Culver City. (310) 271-9039. $20 admission tonightat 8:30 and 10. $17 on Sunday at 7 and 9 p.m.

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