Smooth Gear-Shifting in Varied Musical Terrain

It’s never easy to predict what sort of musical setting Tom Harrell is going to show up with in his fairly frequent trips to the Southland. Last year, for example, he led a big band in a collection of his dynamic arrangements and compositions. The year before, he performed with a hard-bop-sounding quintet that allied him with young tenor saxophonist Gregory Tardy.

On Tuesday at the Jazz Bakery, in the opening set of a weeklong run, Harrell brought another quintet but switched gears again, positioning his trumpet and fluegelhorn in the front line with the guitar of Freddie Bryant. The combination is not particularly common, but it worked well, particularly when Harrell’s mellow fluegelhorn lines were blended with Bryant’s lush chording.

Much of the program--all of it unannounced--consisted of Harrell’s originals, with a final up-tempo romp through the Jerome Kern standard “The Song Is You.” His pieces were filled with unexpected twists of line and harmony, often enriched by surprisingly colorful blendings of timbres.

Harrell’s playing was brisk and articulate on the faster tunes, sweetly lyrical--especially on fluegelhorn--in the rare slower passages. And Bryant’s versatility was impressive, as effective in the fleet lines of his electric guitar solos as it was in his vibrant work on an acoustic instrument.

Longtime Harrell associates Xavier Davis on piano and Ugonna Okegwo on bass provided sympathetic, interactive support, and drummer Carl Allen kept the proceedings together in a strong, surging pocket of rhythm.

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Harrell’s presence on stage, however, for those who had not experienced his music in live performance, was undoubtedly a bit disconcerting. He has suffered from schizophrenia for decades, and the difficult side effects of its treatment tend to create a dulling affect. There were times between numbers when the other musicians, as well as the audience, waited in poised silence while Harrell stood impassively for long moments before starting another number. But once he began to play, his remarkable gifts as a jazz artist took the spotlight, and one could only marvel at his unquenchable creative spirit.

* The Tom Harrell Quintet at the Jazz Bakery, 3233 Helms Ave., Culver City. Tonight through Sunday at 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. $22 admission. (310) 271-9039.