BOB JAMES TRIO “Straight Up” Warner Bros. (**)

The worrisome aspect of this new album is the extent to which it confirms pianist James’ recently expressed belief that the kind of music he performs with the contemporary jazz group Fourplay represents his view of the current jazz mainstream. As if in confirmation, and despite the presence of a pair of young straight-ahead stalwarts in bassist Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade, the music drifts far too often in the direction of brisk, foursquare, creatively unlayered contemporary jazz.

James’ original pieces are different primarily in style--but not substance--from what he might write for Fourplay. And only rarely does the other material trigger the sort of rich playing that characterized his early recordings. Despite the hard-edged funk rhythms laid down by McBride and Blade on “The Jody Grind,” for example, James seems improvisationally tongue-tied, initially failing to break through a cautious hesitancy, then overreacting by filling his solo with streams of notes.

The standard “Lost April” produces some pleasantly Bill Evans-like moments, and Denny Zeitlin’s “Quiet Now” finally stimulates some emotional density in James’ work. But this is still not the jazz outing that, somewhere, somehow, he is capable of making.

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good), four stars (excellent).