Energetic Pianist Reed Zips Among Styles

Pianist Eric Reed has been one of the Southland’s prime young jazz talents for nearly a decade. And he’s still in his 20s. Although he’s been living in New York City for the past few years, often performing with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, his strong family roots continue to draw him back to his hometown.

So it was appropriate on Tuesday, in the opening set of a five-night run at Catalina Bar & Grill, that Reed was leading a quintet he chose to call Family Reunion. It consisted of older artists who have been a support and inspiration in his career--tenor saxophonist Teddy Edwards, alto saxophonist Jeff Clayton, drummer Jeff Hamilton--and a younger associate, bassist Barak Mori.

The moderate-sized crowd, filled with friends and family (including Reed’s parents), responded with appropriate enthusiasm. And Reed, an articulate young man who introduced most of the numbers with pertinent descriptions, responded with the kind of relaxed, wide-open playing that might easily have been delivered in his living room.

Despite the obvious high-level capabilities of the ensemble players, however, they tended to function primarily as a setting for Reed’s virtuosic improvising. His open-minded musical receptivity, combined with the enormous range of creative experiences he has had (no doubt especially via the Marsalis connection), has resulted in an eclecticism that dips freely into the wide mainstream of jazz. As with the late Jaki Byard, a Reed solo can range from stride piano and boogie rhythms to bebop, funk and outright harmonic lyricism.

If there was a single caveat about his performance, it was the sense that Reed’s creative center has not yet matured at the same rate as his technical skills. Capable of playing in a profuse array of styles, he still must find the style that is essentially his own. When he does, he will really be something to hear.

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* Eric Reed and Family Reunion at Catalina Bar & Grill through Saturday. 1640 N. Cahuenga Blvd., (213) 466-2210. $16 cover tonight, Saturday at 8:30 p.m.; $14 cover tonight, Saturday at 10:30 p.m. Two drink minimum.