Garrett Sticks With ‘Happy’ Sound

You can say this about alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett: He knows how he wants his music to sound.

Opening a six-night run at Catalina Bar & Grill on Tuesday, he arrived with the same players and the same musical focus present during his appearance at the same venue a year and a half ago.

What was new was a program of selections largely drawn from his just released album, “Happy People.” The pieces--especially the title track and the rhythmic “Tango in 6”--added welcome contrast to a set that might otherwise have remained too locked into a monochromatic level of high intensity.

Even so, Garrett’s soloing, with its torrents of notes, its bold strokes of sound and its masterful virtuosity, could hardly be described as anything less than charismatic. At 41, he has been on the jazz scene for more than two decades, an original improvisational stylist virtually since the release of his first album in the mid-’80s. Kicking off his Catalina set with a race-horse up tempo, he displayed, virtually from note one, the combination of fast fingers and probing musical inventiveness that has characterized his work ever since.

Pianist Vernell Brown Jr. and bassist Charnett Moffett worked together with the fluency of players who have performed in tandem over an extended period. Brown’s piquant blend of bop phrases with robust chording interfaced smoothly with the dependable Moffett’s surging rhythmic flow and articulate soloing.

As in the previous appearance of the Garrett group, however, drummer Chris Dave seemed less a part of the rhythm team than a free-lancing soloist determinedly following his own musical path. Dropping rhythmic bombs randomly in the middle of solos by other group members, generating percussive climaxes at points unrelated to the overall musical flow, he made contributions impressive for their technical expertise, but distracting for their failure to enhance and support the ensemble efforts.

Nonetheless, the fact is that Dave’s continuing association with Garrett, while playing in essentially the same style, obviously means that what he offers is what Garrett wants to hear. But one couldn’t help but wonder how the music of “Happy People”--which includes some of Garrett’s most engagingly melodic efforts--would have sounded in more emotionally varied, less rhythmically repetitious interpretations.

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The Kenny Garrett Quartet, Catalina Bar & Grill, 1640 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood. Tonight, 8:30 p.m.; Saturday, 10:30 p.m.; Sunday, 7:30 p.m., $20 cover. Tonight, 10:30 p.m.; Sunday, 9:30 p.m.; $18 cover. Saturday, 8:30 p.m., $25 cover. Two-drink minimum. (323) 466-2210.