Mel Martin Charges Up Standards

Saxophonist Mel Martin is one of a number of first-rate jazz artists whose residence in the Bay Area--outside the major jazz media centers of New York and Los Angeles--has tended to reduce his visibility. Which is not to say that he hasn’t had a busy career, working with such pop performers as Santana, Boz Scaggs and Van Morrison, and leading his own group, Bebop and Beyond, on a series of tribute albums to Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and Benny Carter.

On Thursday night at Spazio in Sherman Oaks, Martin made one of his occasional Southland appearances, combining participation at the International Assn. for Jazz Education and the National Assn. of Music Manufacturers with a few local gigs. Leading a Los Angeles rhythm section consisting of pianist Jon Mayer, bassist Darek Oles and drummer Roy McCurdy, he romped confidently through a hard-swinging set mostly devoted to bebop variations on a group of familiar standards.

Martin’s big, muscular sound, reminiscent at times of Dexter Gordon, was especially effective with the flowing melodic lines of “There Is No Greater Love.” And, on another standard, “Polka Dots and Moon Beams,” he switched to the curved soprano saxophone, using the rarely heard instrument to deliver a somewhat more tempered, if no less rhythmically urgent, set of variations.

Martin couldn’t have asked for a better stylistic partner than Mayer, whose ever-present sense of swing and articulate bop improvising provided a creative counter and an empathetic backup support. Oles and McCurdy, two of the Southland’s most dependable rhythm section artists, held the music together with their characteristic creative ease.

Interestingly, despite the no-nonsense, straight-ahead bebop nature of the music, a medium-tempo version of “All the Things You Are” drew a mobile, middle-aged couple to the dance floor. Their presence, along with their sheer terpsichorean energy, was a reminder of a time when jazz--even extremely adventurous jazz--and dancing were enthusiastically compatible musical partners.