Jazz with form, texture and color

Call violinist Jeff Gauthier to speak about the performance of his musically extravagant Goatette band at Pasadena’s Boston Court on Saturday and he’s likely to sound a little distracted. As the new executive director of Ruth Price’s Jazz Bakery and one of the producers of the upcoming Angel City Jazz Festival, Gauthier hasn’t had much time lately to wear his musician’s hat. Not surprisingly, he’s in the middle of writing a grant proposal.

Under Price’s aegis, the Goatette show is the latest installment of her Movable Feast presentations — the floating concerts she’s been presenting since the Jazz Bakery lost the lease to its Culver City home in 2009. Like Gauthier’s current “Open Source” album on his Cryptogramophone label, convening the multifaceted Goatette and playing is something he had to force himself to make time for.

The scarcity of Goatette performances of late has left something of a vacuum in the landscape of SoCal live music. The variety of form and texture and the virtuosic playing heard on “Open Source” make for a tremendous depth of expression: Gauthier’s soulful violin floating over the turbulent ensemble in Dave Witham’s “From a Rainy Night,” the spacey, free-time lunar surface in Ornette Coleman’s underappreciated “Joy of a Toy,” and the delicious drunken-circus interlude on Gauthier’s “Seashells and Balloons.” There is also his ever-present, ever-changing color — in the writing, instrumentation and improvisation.

Though somewhat different from the album’s personnel, Saturday’s lineup is Gauthier, reed player Andrew Pask, pianist and keyboardist Witham, bassist Scott Walton and drummer Alex Cline. “It’s essentially a jazz band,” says Cline, “but it draws on many traditions that stretch it into other directions.”

Witham, a charter member of the band since 1990, recalls Gauthier’s dictum for the recording a year and a half ago. “Jeff drew a line in the sand,” Witham recalls. “He said, ‘We’re going to have a finished album by May.’ So we brought in new material. Jeff appreciates everyone’s input. He’s always been collaborative, and there’s been a lot of trust built up between us over the years.” Cline agrees: “The collaboration is one of the most salient and enjoyable qualities of this group.”

Creative interaction has been in Gauthier’s musical makeup since his days as one-quarter of the cooperative Quartet Music band (with guitarist Nels Cline and his twin brother Alex, and the late bassist Eric von Essen). “Those were three very strong musical personalities,” Gauthier offers. “We were learning from each other and outside influences. My background was in chamber music and the standard classical repertory, but I didn’t want to be a violin soloist.”

As young musicians of the early 1970s, Gauthier and his colleagues couldn’t help but be taken with the first flowering of fusion. The electronica that has seeped into the Goatette palette is therefore a natural outgrowth. “We used it on the last three Goatette albums,” Alex Cline points out. “I don’t think it was a conscious decision; they just reflect us at the times they were recorded.”

As for the color in the music, Gauthier notes, “It was always there, but our canvas has just gotten bigger with time.” Witham adds, “Generally, I used electronic keyboards for texture. As time has moved on, I’ve upped my arsenal.”

It’s elementary to Alex Cline: “You take sensitive people who are concerned with color and you’re going to get a lot of it.”

With the ensemble as the focus of the Goatette, it’s tempting to overlook Gauthier’s steady, seldom-seen hand in the band. “The best place to look for Jeff,” says Alex Cline, “is his sound. When he plays a melody, you know exactly who you’re listening to. That’s the hallmark of a great jazz player.”

KIRK SILSBEE writes about jazz and culture for Marquee.

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Jeff Gauthier’s Goatette

Where: Boston Court, 70 N. Mentor Ave., Pasadena

When: Sunday, August 18, 7:00 p.m.

More info: (310) 271-9039; www.bostoncourt.com; www.jazzbakery.org.