Tender improvisation laced with a lesson

Baritone saxophonist and flutist Hamiet Bluiett was an influential member of the young, musically radical generation of players emerging in the avant-garde jazz world of the ‘60s and ‘70s. In a career that has stretched from gigs with Sam Rivers and Charles Mingus to co-founding the World Saxophone Quartet and the Clarinet Family, his musical vision has constantly expanded into fascinating new musical territories.

Bluiett is exploring yet another new land in his appearance this week at the Jazz Bakery in Culver City in a work that combines the spirit of jazz with the drama of the city. “Nobody Walks Like My Daddy,” written by E.L. James, and subtitled “A Jazz Song in Syncopated Counterpoint,” is a dramatized meditation on fatherless homes and their effect on sons, fathers and grandfathers.

With words and music inextricably linked, the piece was presented in Thursday night’s opening performance in quasi-improvised fashion, via a smoothly connected series of interactive scenes featuring James and actor Roscoe Freeman. As the pair shifted from character to character during the hour-plus presentation, Bluiett and percussionist Eddie Rouse musically circled around and through the dialogue, creating spontaneous, evocative settings.

Those settings were as alive and potent as the actors’ sudden shifts of phrase, accent and emotional intensity. In some passages, Bluiett’s flute lines resonated tenderly with one of the actors’ dramatic set pieces. In others, his brawny baritone saxophone added hard-bitten subtext -- especially during a section in which Freeman’s character reached a point of violent desperation.

Combined with Rouse’s subtle percussion sounds, alternately echoing and urging James’ gripping story, they convincingly displayed the persuasive dramatic powers of improvisational jazz.

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Hamiet Bluiett

Where: The Jazz Bakery, 3233 Helms Ave., Culver City

When: Tonight-Sunday, 8 and 9:30 p.m.

Price: $20.

Contact: (310) 271-9039.