Trio Goes Beyond the Standard Fare

Friday nights at Spazio in Sherman Oaks are quickly becoming a time to hear first-rate jazz piano performances.

As with the attractive venue’s Tuesday night guitar sessions, the Friday programs--which this month have already featured Gerald Wiggins and Mike Melvoin--offer the opportunity for a personal connection with the music-making process.

On Friday night, pianist Bill Mays--a former regular in Los Angeles recording studios, a New York resident for the past two decades--made one of his occasional West Coast appearances, working with the fine rhythm tandem of bassist Tom Warrington and drummer Joe LaBarbera.

The setting was especially appropriate for Mays, a passionate player who does not hesitate to let out a cry of excitement when he is in the midst of a particularly exhilarating improvisational excursion.

The energy he generated during several sets of dauntless jazz adventuring created a virtually palpable sense of excitement throughout the crowded room.

In addition to his virtuosic skills as a pianist, Mays is also a composer with an ear for the effects that can be produced by subtle shifts of harmony--the subtext of dissonance he added to the line of the bossa nova classic “Estate” was one of many examples.

He is also adept at transforming a familiar standard into a composite reaching well beyond the familiar theme and variations approach. “Witchcraft,” for instance, began with an irresistibly swinging statement of the theme by Mays’ solo piano. Gradually expanding, it was soon supplemented by Warrington and LaBarbera, with the latter’s drumming shifting seamlessly from airy brush playing to hard-driving, drumstick-triggered rhythms. Then, balancing the opening, the piece cycled back to piano alone for the closing passage.

Other numbers received similarly resourceful renderings--especially a Bill Evans tribute combining LaBarbera’s “Kind of Bill” and Phil Woods’ “Goodbye Mr. Bill,” and the musical blending of two Charlie Parker lines, “Scrapple From the Apple’ and “Ah-Leu-Cha.”

Here, as in a joyous romp through “Sweet Lorraine” (in which Mays playfully inserted quotes from other tunes such as “Heart and Soul” and “Louise”), the playing was on a consistently high level, superbly enhanced by the empathetic interaction among all three players.

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Next, the Terry Trotter Quartet performs at Spazio, 14755 Ventura Blvd. (second floor), Sherman Oaks, on Friday. Sets begin at 8 p.m. and continue to midnight. No cover; two-drink minimum. (818) 728-8400.