JAZZ REVIEW : VITAL, VALID SOUNDS OF BERK’S ADOPTION AGENCY

It is hard to think of any replacement that would constitute an improvement in the band known as Dick Berk’s Adoption Agency, heard Monday at Alfonse’s in Toluca Lake.

Why this exceptional unit, with its state-of-the-jazz-art values, has been heard so rarely (and never yet on the jazz festival circuit) is anybody’s guess. There is more innovative energy in one set by this group than in a whole evening by one of those chart-topping crossover combos.

The leader, a straight-ahead drummer in his late 40s, is old enough to be the father of some of his sidemen, yet all are experienced pros whose improvisational skills are brilliantly honed. The music they play probably will pass for mainstream in the year 2000. Theirs are contemporary sounds in the most valid and vital sense. Much of their sometimes Art Blakey-like repertoire is original, written by Berk with his pianist, Tad Weed, and others. The Berk/Weed composition “Three for Vinnie” has a fiercely driving quality that makes the word waltz seem inadequate, though its pulse is indeed in 3/4.

Individually and collectively, the horn section composed of Jeff Bunnell on trumpet, David Pozzi on tenor sax and Mike Fahn on trombone is imposing and exciting. The mere fact that Fahn uses a valve trombone puts him, ipso facto, one step ahead, since this rarely heard instrument gives him a strikingly personal sound, which he embellishes with technique that borders on the incredible.

Fahn’s version of the Victor Young “Beautiful Love” was notable for a startling passage that gradually accelerated the tempo, then just as deliberately retarded it. Weed’s solo here, as elsewhere, displayed a rich density of harmonic textures.

The young bassist Scott Colley was equally impressive as a rhythm section component and as a soloist capable of fast, nimble chording. There is, in short, not a single weak link in this six-man chain of command.