Bill Berry Quintet Romps Through Swing and Bop

Jazz experience was on full display Wednesday night in the Westin Airport Hotel lobby. Cornetist Bill Berry’s quintet could probably count a century or two of musical history among its players, most of it in top-flight settings. In addition to leading his own bands, Berry is a former Duke Ellington sideman, and the deep respect for melody that invested his playing suggested a powerful influence from his Ducal experience.

The set was comfortably eclectic--standards such as “Sweet and Lovely,” a healthy sampling of Ellington (“I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart,” “Do Nothing ‘Til You Hear From Me” and “Warm Valley”), a bit of Basie via “Jumpin’ at the Woodside,” and a soulful, set-closing rendering of Thelonious Monk’s “Blue Monk.”

Despite the stylistic range of selections, the approach was straight-ahead mainstream. Berry, accompanied in the front line by saxophonist Roger Neumann, set the tone by playing in a style that pulled bits and pieces of swing and bop into his solos. The results were consistently engaging--impromptu cameos reflecting the musical communication that seems central to his musical methodology.

In that sense, Neumann, who performed with a sprightly rhythmic drive on tenor and soprano saxophones, was a perfect musical partner. And pianist Marty Harris, whose accompaniments added a kind of spontaneous musical structure to the rhythm backing, added his own witty improvisations, often tossing in quotes from other tunes. Bassist Chuck Berghofer and drummer Jake Hanna, a veteran rhythm team, found the ideal balance between subtle support and dynamic drive.

The enthusiastic audience underscored that what initially appeared to be a quixotic notion at the Westin--placing jazz in the lobby of an LAX-area hotel--has turned out to be a solid success, both musically and commercially. With capacity crowds showing up for the venue’s Wednesday evening performances, the schedule now has been expanded to include Thursdays.

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Jazz at the Westin Los Angeles Airport, 5400 Century Blvd. Wednesday: The Mike Wofford Trio with guest flutist Holly Hofmann. Thursday: The Jeff Hamilton Trio. 5 to 9 p.m. No cover, no minimum. Validated parking. (310) 216-5858, Ext. 7225.