JAZZ REVIEW : TABACKIN, AKIYOSHI HEAD QUARTET

It took quite a feat of logistics to bring together a quartet that played Sunday at the New Otani Hotel.

From Minneapolis, Lew Tabackin came to town with his tenor saxophone and flute, while his wife Toshiko Akiyoshi flew in from Honolulu. Their regular bassist, Jay Anderson, arrived from New York and was joined by Eddie Marshall from San Francisco, who has often played drums with Akiyoshi and Tabackin on their various small-group assignments.

Although by now the big band (with which they’ll be back in town to play at At My Place on Feb.1) seems like their natural habitat, the Tabackins diversified this occasion by splitting the concert into a few quartet numbers, trios led by one or the other, with bass and drums, and a piano solo set.

Like Duke Ellington, Akiyoshi has long been so well known as a composer that her value as a pianist tends to be underestimated. It was clear, however, that she has been keeping in shape. Her own moody, 5/4 “Children in Temple Ground,” her development of “It Was a Very Good Year” into a virtual mini-concerto and the harmonic sensitivity she brought to Ellington’s “Come Sunday” all offered compelling evidence of her keyboard mastery.

Tabackin was in an adventurous mood, exploring some two-tone effects during one long unaccompanied flute solo, and lending his uniquely vigorous tenor manner (with his customary in-place dancing as a visual counterpart) to a semi-abstract treatment of Victor Young’s “Love Letters.” These were high spots in a set that sometimes suffered from the absence of the piano. Akiyoshi returned for the finale, a dashing workout on the chords of “Indiana” described by Tabackin as a tribute to the late Don Byas, one of his early tenor idols. Marshall and Anderson filled their roles well enough to leave no doubt that they had played these routines before. All in all, a spirited reminder of two major talents surmounting a minor format.