Blanchard Infuses Performance With Personality, Improvisation

There were times in Terence Blanchard’s opening-night set at the Jazz Bakery in which he raised his trumpet toward the ceiling and played with a free-flowing abandon that took the music far beyond the walled-in confines of a jazz club. In Blanchard’s soaring melodies one could almost sense what it might have been like to hear the legendary Buddy Bolden at the turn of the century, playing his cornet with an intensity that reportedly could be heard across the span of the Mississippi River.

Those illusionary romanticisms aside, Blanchard was actually in town to support his latest Sony album, “Jazz in Film.” The project features a septet playing his arrangements of music written by composers such as Alex North, Duke Ellington and Quincy Jones for such pictures as “A Streetcar Named Desire,” “Anatomy of a Murder” and “The Pawnbroker.”

Wednesday night’s performance, however, took a somewhat different tack, opening up long segments of time for open improvisation. Blanchard was in fine form throughout, mixing his extraordinary high-note passages with lush, mid-range utterances. Despite his obvious virtuosic skills, the most consistently attractive aspect of his playing was its sheer personality, the immediately identifiable quality of his sound and his style, regardless of what he was playing.

The evening’s most impressive moments came during a long, passionate romp through a piece from “Anatomy of a Murder.” Each of the principal soloists--Blanchard, tenor saxophonist Brice Winston and pianist Edward Simon--played with escalating musical energy. Bassist David Pulphus’ foundation was solid, and drummer Eric Holland virtually exploded with a high-voltage support that--for all its intensity--never exceeded the easily disturbed acoustics of the Bakery.

But the star of that particular piece, at least, was 19-year-old alto saxophonist Aaron Fletcher, who played with an abandon that pulled together elements from Hank Crawford, Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane. And it was good to know that Blanchard, a major name in his own right, was generous and perceptive enough to open the door for an impressive young artist.

* The Terence Blanchard Quintet at the Jazz Bakery through Saturday. 3233 Helms Ave., Culver City, (310) 271-9039. $20 admission tonight and Saturday at 8 and 9:30 p.m. $18 admission Sunday at 7 and 8:30 p.m.