Golson Quartet, Brown Trio Warm Up Cross-Town Venues

Jazz fans have a lot to be grateful for this Thanksgiving week, with the opportunity to hear two legendary jazz figures, each working his magic in a different setting: tenor saxophonist-composer Benny Golson with a quartet at the Jazz Bakery, and bassist Ray Brown with his trio at Catalina Bar & Grill.

Golson’s opening set Tuesday night was a display of solid jazz professionalism. Working with a fine local trio--pianist Jon Mayer, bassist Bob Magnusson and drummer Roy McCurdy--he handled the relatively unrehearsed setting with ease, playing a mixture of standards and originals.

Always known as a musically sophisticated improviser, Golson, 70, delivered solo after solo in which his ideas emerged in spontaneously compositional form. If his dexterity didn’t always quite match the free-flowing qualities of his youthful work from the ‘50s and ‘60s, there was no lapse in his imagination, and his tone was as warm and supple as ever.

As an added bonus, there were the Golson compositions--from the lesser-known “Lenox Avenue Soundcheck” and “Uptown Afterburn” to the classic “Along Came Betty”--each introduced with a whimsical background story, each an example of his capacity to combine catchy melodies and unexpectedly shifting harmonies. With Mayer, Magnusson and McCurdy providing smoothly efficient support for Golson’s thoughtful presentation, it was a rare evening of jazz as a mature and entertaining artistic expression.

Later that evening, across town at Catalina Bar & Grill, Brown was leading his sterling trio through a collection of material ranging, amazingly, from “America the Beautiful” and “Stardust” to “In the Wee Small Hours” and “Equinox” (by John Coltrane). Unlike Golson, Brown was working in a familiar setting, with young players--Geoff Keezer on piano and Kareem Riggins on drums--who are the latest additions to the long list of talented newcomers he has nurtured over the years.

And the differences were apparent. The Brown trio cruised through its numbers with a perfect balance between crisp, musically precise ensemble passages and driving improvisations--especially from Keezer, whose skills as a soloist are expanding exponentially. At the heart of it all, Brown, 73, convincingly played the role of masterful patriarch, his incomparable sense of time and rhythm serving as the engine driving a program of beautifully executed, irresistibly appealing jazz.

* The Benny Golson Quartet at the Jazz Bakery through Sunday. 3233 Helms Ave., Culver City, (310) 271-9039. $22 admission tonight and Saturday at 8 and 9:30 p.m., and $20 Sunday at 7 and 8:30 p.m.

* The Ray Brown Trio at Catalina Bar & Grill through Sunday. 1640 N. Cahuenga Blvd., (323) 466-2210. $17 cover tonight, Saturday at 8:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:15 p.m.; $15 cover tonight, Saturday at 10:30 p.m. and Sunday at 10:45 p.m. Two-drink minimum.