Jordan Scans Guitar’s Possibilities

Stanley Jordan is making one of his occasional solo appearances in the Southland this week, displaying what is surely one of the most unusual instrumental techniques in any genre of music. His opening-night set at the Jazz Bakery offered a characteristic display of his “tapping” method of guitar playing, in which he moves both hands freely across the strings, producing notes by tapping the strings onto the frets.

The results were startling, even to one who has frequently seen Jordan in action. His method literally transforms the instrument, opening possibilities for dense chordal sounds and multiple moving lines, supplemented by all the more familiar guitar techniques--from strumming and picking to bent notes and sliding tones.

All this wouldn’t matter much, of course, if it was nothing more than a display of exotic mechanical artistry. But Jordan, whose jazz roots are firm, brought an improvisatory perception to everything he played, transforming tunes via rhapsodic variations, fragmenting, reconstructing, playing melodic variations--the entire panoply of jazz soloing enhanced by the broad sweep of his instrumental style.

Typically, he roved through a range of material. He has always been fond of Lennon & McCartney tunes, this time offering a medley that began with “Because” and ended with “Eleanor Rigby.” Another Jordan favorite, Paul Simon’s “El Condor Pasa,” surfaced in a fashion far removed from its Andean roots, while his rendering of “When You Wish Upon a Star” recalled its sweetly lyrical presence in the film “Pinocchio.”

The more straight-ahead jazz elements in the program surfaced with Benny Golson’s “Along Came Betty” and the classic standard “Willow Weep for Me.” Jordan’s blues qualities pushed through the shimmering string sounds to energize his one-man-band qualities with a forceful rhythmic swing.

If there was a problem with his otherwise compelling program, it was Jordan’s tendency to repeat material he has often examined in the past. Given the remarkable potential of his “tapping” style, one wonders why he hasn’t encouraged composers to provide some original works aimed at employing his enormously diverse technical possibilities. As one of the jazz world’s true originals, Jordan would do well to more thoroughly explore the full extent of that singularity.

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