Pianist Milne and Co. Break New Ground

One of the great pleasures of experiencing jazz in a live setting is the sheer exhilaration of hearing new talent bursting through the envelope of tradition. Yes, it happens on albums too, but rarely with the visceral qualities that can be present in a firsthand, in-your-face encounter with the real thing.

Pianist Andy Milne has been around for a while, performing with saxophonist Steve Coleman and, currently, with Ravi Coltrane. But those gigs, despite their generally first-rate qualities, offered little preparation for the appearance by his own group, Andy Milne’s Cosmic Dapp Theory, at Rocco’s in Bel-Air on Wednesday night. (The name, according to Milne, was indirectly inspired by George Clinton’s Cosmic Slop but has more to do with a belief in balance and karma.)

The band’s late set at Rocco, performed before a dismally small but enthusiastic crowd, was a stunner. Performed at a high technical level--in which unusual meters cruised effortlessly through some of the selections, and the interaction between players was startlingly intuitive--the program overflowed with musical riches.

Although the presence of rapper Kokayi might have suggested yet another effort to graft other forms onto jazz, quite the opposite was the case. Kokayi’s improvisational skills reached well beyond the capacity to spontaneously rhyme lyrics, adding a rich, vocal tonal range and a sophisticated response to the music’s shifting harmonies.

At its best, his singing suggested intriguing openings beyond the too-narrow definitions of jazz scat singing.

The balance of the group--Milne, Swiss harmonica player Gregoire Maret, bassist Rich Brown and drummer Mark Prince--was, in the most superficial sense, a superb contemporary jazz ensemble. They could, no doubt, have delivered an effective program of jazz standards. But performing Milne’s imaginative, quirky, genre-stretching music, they broke ground in one or another direction in virtually every piece.

Maret left jazz-blues harmonica style far behind, especially in a closing-number solo in which he floated easily above the rhythmic flow. Brown played with the fluid ease of an acoustic guitarist, and Prince consistently found grooves without lapsing into drum machine predictability.

Overseeing everything with a visible joy in the process of creativity, Milne brought the music together with a magisterial command of harmony and rhythm.

Opportunities to hear jazz breakthroughs don’t arrive every day. Fortunately, Milne and his Cosmic Dapp Theory continue at Rocco’s through Saturday and return next week. Don’t miss them.

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* Andy Milne’s Cosmic Dapp Theory at Rocco’s, 2930 Beverly Glen Circle, Bel-Air. Tonight and Saturday, Wednesday, next Friday and Nov. 25. $10. (310) 475-9807.