A heady combo of experience, imagination

There they were -- three graying veterans of countless gigs, recordings and music campaigns -- gathered onstage at Spazio in Sherman Oaks on Friday night, once again ready to do their thing. Guitarist Al Viola, 85, saxophonist-flutist Sam Most, 73, and bassist Chuck Berghofer, 67, applied their century and a half or so of accumulated musical experience to a program of standards.

If that sounds like another night of jazz lounge music, don’t believe it. Viola, perhaps best known as a superb accompanist and a stalwart in Frank Sinatra’s rhythm section for decades, is also a gifted soloist and an entertaining presence. In such tunes as “East of the Sun,” “Exactly Like You” and “You Stepped Out of a Dream,” his choruses overflowed with inspired improvising. Sometimes focusing on single-note lines, he often shifted gears into rich-clustered, moving chordal phrases, all with a fine ear for melody and an ineffable drive.

Most played tenor saxophone with a cool, Stan Getz-like manner and alto flute with an affection for the instrument’s dark, evocative sound. But he was most entertaining when he delivered vocals on “Exactly Like You,” “Route 66” and “Honeysuckle Rose.” Like the phrasing of many instrumentalists who sing, his was alive with ingenious rhythmic variations. And his scat singing was even better: lighthearted vocal romps filled with riff-driven phrases and sudden bursts of bebop licks.

Berghofer’s role was largely limited to the smoothly accurate, walking bass lines that are his stock in trade. But he too soloed with imagination and skill. And he capped the second set with a whimsical rendering of Bobby Troup’s jazz take on the story of the Three Bears.

Hearing these veterans in action, one couldn’t help but recall the Sinatra classic “Young at Heart,” with the group’s ever-delightful performance underscoring the old adage that age isn’t anything but a number.