Jazz Reviews : Red Holloway, Stacy Rowles Teamed at Indigo Club

At the Indigo Jazz Club in the Compton Lazben Hotel a new jazz partnership is being tried out this week, as the saxophonist Red Holloway locks horns with the trumpeter Stacy Rowles.

Though there had clearly been no rehearsal and the group had no original material to lend it a personal character, the results were generally encouraging. The set opened with Rowles playing fluegelhorn and Holloway on alto sax playing that most insipid of vehicles, “Mack the Knife,” but once past the theme, they used its adequate harmonic patterns and some fast and fluent blowing.

Switching to trumpet and tenor sax, they tackled “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be,” which, as a blues, was a natural vehicle for them. On “Caravan,” Paul Humphrey offered a fittingly exotic introduction, using mallets, and altering the pitch by moving his elbows around the drums.

Rowles had her own solo workout with a lyrical “Emily” and Holloway found hard-cooking new ways to deal with “Love for Sale,” partly in waltz time.

Completing the group were Richard Reid, a strong and supportive bass player, and the pianist Dwight Dickerson, whose “Prelude to a Kiss” was a mite too flowery but never dull. Holloway’s attempts to sing the blues was amusing, but he could use a fresher and more cohesive set of lyrics.

The finale, “Mood Indigo,” which seems to have become the theme song for this room, underwent major surgery as the band doubled the time, then quadrupled it--hardly an indigo mood, but one that achieved a spirited level of creation as Rowles and Holloway met the challenge.

The only problem was a noisy, yakking, inconsiderate audience. Visitors who catch the group before its Saturday closing, are advised to find a seat close to the music.