Bassist Brown Is a Marvel of Improv

Bassist Ray Brown has been justifiably praised for his generosity in bringing talented young musicians into the spotlight. To mention only a few, pianists Benny Green and Geoff Keezer, and drummers Greg Hutchinson and Kareem Riggins have all benefited considerably from the guidance and understanding they received while working with Brown’s trio.

But that magnanimity, combined with the fact that the bass, by its very nature, tends to take a supportive role in a jazz ensemble, has occasionally tended to obscure Brown’s own extraordinary abilities.

On Tuesday at the Catalina Bar & Grill, however, in the opening set of a six-night run, Brown stepped into the spotlight a bit more than usual, and the results were impressive.

His solo rendering of “Tenderly,” which was interspersed with a few choruses of soul-style blues, was a marvel. Playing, as he always does, with precise accuracy, Brown juxtaposed the melody line against roving harmonic arpeggios, often dipping into piquant alternate harmonies. It was the offering of a mature master, constantly focused on the imaginative exposition of the material, never falling prey to superficial displays of technical virtuosity.

As if that wasn’t enough, Brown came back to do an encore--after insistent applause from a full-house, demonstrative crowd--and essentially defined what jazz blues playing is all about. Tossing fragment after fragment of famous blues licks into his solo, he spontaneously assembled them into a bright, hard-swinging quilt of classic jazz improvisation.

The current Brown trio--with pianist Larry Fuller and drummer George Fludas--is still a work in progress. Fuller is a hard-driving, bop-based swinger who has done some impressive outings with the Jeff Hamilton group. His playing was done with crisp authority, in both solo and backing passages, but with too small a portion of the subtle touch and tone that have characterized the better efforts of Brown’s previous trios. Fludas, a busy drummer who frequently took cues from Brown, also played with energetic propulsion, soloing effectively on “Lester Leaps In.” His accompaniment, however, suffered from a tendency to impose his own sectionalizations during improvised passages by other players--especially Fuller--rather than respond to their own creative pacing.

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* The Ray Brown Trio at Catalina Bar & Grill, 1640 N. Cahuenga Blvd. Tonight and Saturday at 8:30 p.m. and Sunday at 7:30 p.m., $20 cover. Tonight and Saturday at 10:30 p.m. and Sunday at 9:30 p.m., $17. Two-drink minimum. (323) 466-2210.