Strokes of genius from true artists

There was often a painterly aspect to Wednesday’s performance by Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette at UCLA’s Royce Hall.

Painterly, that is, in the sense that the trio’s improvisations sometimes revealed the spontaneous musical brush strokes that went into its making -- great Jackson Pollock-like gobs of colorful sound, the sudden glow of lush, Impressionistic harmonies.

But there were linear moments as well -- passages in which Jarrett’s melody lines combined precision with inner emotion, as orderly but subtly inferential as a Michelangelo drawing. And the combination, the capacity to find common ground between two interpretive overviews -- Aristotelian and Platonic -- is what has made the Jarrett-Peacock-DeJohnette trio one of the jazz world’s most continuously creative, long-lived ensembles.

Currently celebrating its 25th anniversary together, the trio put on a brilliant display of all the things its members do so well together, from Jarrett’s ever-probing, often whimsical piano to Peacock’s roving bass lines to DeJohnette’s layered percussive textures.

The first set, however, started with a bit of uncertainty. Beginning with the ‘30s standard “The Masquerade Is Over,” Jarrett’s chording was characteristically dense. But the rhythmic articulation in his more rapid passages seemed out of joint. After the concert, Jarrett explained that the piano had some of the stiffest key action he’d ever experienced.

To his credit, he accepted the challenge, made the necessary adaptations and took on the tune in an Odyssean musical journey that ultimately opened the way for an evening of challenging improvisational adventures.

“The Meaning of the Blues” was delivered with passionate intensity, highlighted by Jarrett’s use of a stunningly visual sequence of note flurries in his extended improvisation. Thelonious Monk’s blues “Straight, No Chaser” became the setting for the evening’s deepest excursion into the realm of utter spontaneity. Starting with an electrifying drum solo from DeJohnette, it was quickly driven by Jarrett into avant-garde territory -- conjuring visions of Cecil Taylor out of Pollock -- action jazz in which the music was evidence of the musicians’ encounter with the unfettered world of free improvisation.

Other tunes displayed the trio’s lyricism -- “Someday My Prince Will Come,” “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” and, oddly, the ‘50s Jo Stafford hit “You Belong to Me.” Each was a model of lyrical melody making, often featuring phrases from Jarrett that extended across entire choruses, suspensefully tightrope-walking across the changes, linking together imaginative new phrases with every step.

By the time the trio had concluded two long sets, the capacity audience still wasn’t ready to go, and a generous encore set followed. First up, yet another gorgeously lyrical standard, “When I Fall in Love,” in which Jarrett’s statement of the melody had all the emotional authenticity of a Billie Holiday vocal.

Finally, there was the tune the trio has played around with for years, its own version of the Ahmad Jamal arrangement of “Poinciana,” a typically off-center send-off from a musical collective still eager to expand the musical visions begun a quarter century ago.