Trio leads the pack at UCLA

There was a surprisingly small crowd present Sunday at the start of the jazz portion of UCLA’s annual Jazz & Reggae Festival at Drake Stadium, given the quality of the program. The contemporary-oriented lineup, including Blay Ambolley’s Afrikan Jazz Ensemble, Russell Gunn with DJ Apollo, conguero Francisco Aguabella’s Latin Jazz Band and the Emiliano Rodriguez Orchestra, showed a strong world-music orientation, and offered an appealingly diverse collection of sounds.

The real buzz, however, centered on the Bad Plus, a jazz piano trio that has been generating a growing wave of interest among jazz fans and beyond. By the time the New York-based group arrived on stage, the stadium had filled up considerably -- with listeners and anticipation.

Pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Reid Anderson and drummer David King advanced the intriguing notion that a jazz group could present music capable of connecting directly with a young audience without resorting to the use of pop elements such as turntables, rap, hip-hop rhythms and synthesizers.

Their tunes, which ranged from originals on their latest album, “These Are the Vistas,” to Ornette Coleman’s “Street Woman,” made the case convincingly via an energized polarity reaching from Iverson’s iconoclastic piano through Anderson’s foundational bass playing to King’s tumultuous drumming.

Much of what the Bad Plus offered ranged far enough across genre lines to draw the ire of both the jazz and classical police. That alone identified them as an intriguing ensemble. But it was their overall musical inventiveness that suggested a potential to reach beyond the transitory vibe of a new flavor of the month.