Spoonful of Raw Sugar is good medicine

Music and medicine have had a long and fascinating association.

From the belief in the healing powers of music that has been historically present in many world cultures to the present day physicians’ orchestras, the linkage has been strikingly persistent.

Dr. Richard Allen Williams is a personification of that linkage. A professor of medicine at UCLA and editor of the pioneering “Textbook of Black-Related Diseases,” he also has been a jazz trumpeter for most of his life.

On Saturday night, he made one of his periodic performances, leading the group Raw Sugar at Spazio in Sherman Oaks.

Focusing on standards and jazz classics, playing trumpet and flugelhorn, he sparked a series of lively romps through, among others, “All the Things You Are,” Miles Davis’ “Walkin’ ” and Clifford Brown’s “Joy Spring.”

Williams’ youthful association with Brown had an unmistakable effect on his playing, as did his affection for the work of Davis. And his soloing captured the lyrical and rhythmic qualities of those influences, enhanced by his own obvious passion for both the science and the art of improvisation.

The set was further enhanced by the world-class qualities of the other members of Raw Sugar -- tenor saxophonist Justo Almario, pianist Jane Getz, bassist Jeff Littleton and drummer Sherman Ferguson.

Strongly supportive as a backup unit, they were equally impressive as soloists, with Almario, in particular, demonstrating his great stylistic versatility, and the too-rarely heard Getz displaying her articulate bebop powers.

Swinger Sweet Baby J’ai added her characteristically high-spirited vocals to an evening in which both the therapeutic and the energizing powers of jazz were in full flower.