Mose Allison Digs Deep in Rock-Solid Set

Mose Allison opened a weeklong-run at the Jazz Bakery in a retrospective mood Tuesday night. His latest recording, “The Mose Chronicles, Volume One,” scheduled to be released Tuesday, is a collection of new renderings of some of his classic songs. And the Tuesday set was delivered in similar fashion, opening--as the album does--with an instrumental overture, then continuing with Allison originals and his covers of tunes by other composers.

For longtime fans of the veteran jazz pianist-singer-songwriter, there was a lot to be pleased with in the presentation. “How Much Truth” (also recorded by Tracy Nelson) was a typical example of Allison’s capacity to deliver philosophical thoughts masked by deceptively simply musical whimsy. Similarly, “What’s Your Movie” took a look at individual views of reality.

He added equally off-center pieces by other writers: Willie Dixon’s “I Live the Life I Love (And I Love the Life I Lead)” and--more irony--a dark, minor-chord version of “You Are My Sunshine.” Allison also tossed in one of his most humorously telling numbers, “Certified Senior Citizen,” sung in the unique, hard-accented phrasing style that is his stock in trade. Underscored with characteristic irony, it could easily have added the line that Allison is also a certified jazz original.

Most of his songs were virtual epigrams, the charm of their impact tracing to the way Allison started with a seemingly innocent thought, immediately answering it with an unexpected, countering response. Some examples from his Tuesday set: “Everybody’s crying mercy, but they don’t know the meaning of the word” and “Ever since the world ended, I don’t go out as much,” as well as a line with universal resonance: “The more you get, the more you got to lose.”

Good stuff, all of it, as jazz and as life.

Allison was accompanied in stellar fashion by bassist Dave Carpenter, whose solid rhythmic lines and note-rich flurries of counterpoint were the perfect enhancement for both vocal and instrumental passages.

* Mose Allison at the Jazz Bakery, 3233 Helms Ave., Culver City. Tonight through Sunday at 8 and 9:30 p.m., $25. (310) 271-9039.