Jazz Reviews : Ray Brown Leads a Sparkling Jam Session at the Loa

At its best, jazz is a jam session: A loosely organized gathering of like-minded players who contribute individual content to a shared context. At its worst, jazz is a jam session of ill-suited players whose individual statements conflict in an uncooperative setting (a case of too many chiefs and not enough Indians).

Thankfully, bassist Ray Brown’s weekend jam session at the Loa was jazz at its best.

From an opening “Now’s the Time” to a closing “Lester Leaps In,” Friday evening’s opening set at the Santa Monica nightclub was an invigorating jazz experience offered by a septet of post-bop traditionalists--capable, spirited chiefs with the cooperative, tribal mentality.

Calling tunes from the stage, Brown & Co. wended their ways through a series of jazz standards with swinging expertise. The format was one of passing the solo hat, which was just fine considering the front-line talent of saxophonists Jeff Clayton and Red Holloway and trumpeter Conte Candoli.

Each player was given ample opportunity to strut his particular stuff, but there was no one-upsmanship, no sense of “cutting.” The soloists limited their work to brief numbers of choruses and Candoli busied himself by involving whichever non-soloing saxophonist in inspired rounds of shout choruses and background riffs.

Staying too far in the background was guitarist Ron Eschete, a greatly underrated player whose solo efforts on Dizzy Gillespie’s “Con Alma” were brilliant. So too was his constant musical bantering with pianist Gerald Wiggins, whose sympathetic backing and deft soloing were constant sources of the light. His free-wheeling solo on “Body and Soul” was classic.

Sharing the anchoring duties with the legendary Brown was drummer Harold Mason, who provided the group’s rhythmic impetus with authority.

If Brown & Co. could resist the temptation of making set lists and writing charts and getting organized--they could take this jam session on the road.