At Roy Hargrove’s Show, Don’t Be Late

Roy Hargrove has a habit of coming on stage, picking up his trumpet and instantly digging into a high-speed, note-filled solo. The concept of warming up slowly, of building to a climax, doesn’t seem to have a place in his musical way of thinking.

On Tuesday night at Catalina Bar & Grill, Hargrove once again began “Public Eye,” the first tune of his opening night, with the same approach, lifting off immediately, soaring through a solo filled with brilliantly articulate filigrees of melody, never touching down until he had scoured every inch of his horn.

Other tunes took a similar course, with Hargrove in full flight, pausing only to give the other members of his quintet the opportunity to match his fiery improvisational excursions. But they were rarely able to rise to his level.

Hargrove shifted down into cruise control during his choruses on Fats Navarro’s “Nostalgia,” replacing the torrent of notes with more melodically oriented phrasing. And when he pulled out his flugelhorn to do some ballad work, an even gentler, more lyrical aspect of his playing emerged.

Hargrove has always been versatile, but as he has matured, he has brought a seamless flow to his improvising, telling his musical stories via a line that effortlessly expresses the complex passage of his musical thoughts.

Not as much can be said for his quintet’s overall musical presentation. Recognizing that drummer Willie Jones III is a local product, and that he had many friends in the crowd, Hargrove expanded the drum solo segments in many of the tunes. A good idea for the Jones fans, less intriguing to those who are perfectly happy to hear only one extended percussion display per set.

Nor was the energy level of the rhythm section (Jones, bassist Dwayne Burno and pianist Eric Lewis) quite up to the level established by Hargrove. Burno was solid and dependable, but not quite into a grooving rhythmic pocket with Jones. And Lewis seemed intent upon approaching every solo as a bell curve building to an orgiastic, banging-on-the-keys climax. Alto saxophonist Jesse Robinson tried hard to match Hargrove note for note, succeeding at times, but without the vivacious musical intensity of his leader.

Still, the gig, after all, was Hargrove’s, and one can’t fault the ecstatic qualities of his playing. At 32, he has firmly established himself as one of the important jazz voices of his generation.

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The Roy Hargrove Quintet at Catalina Bar & Grill, 1640 N. Cahuenga Blvd. Tonight at 8:30 p.m. and Sunday at 7:30 p.m., $20 cover; tonight at 10:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:30 p.m., $18 cover; Saturday at 8:30 p.m., $25; at 10:30 p.m., $22. Two-drink minimum. (323) 466-2210.