Coltrane and Brackeen Unite for a Provocative Program

A few years ago, pianist Herbie Hancock and saxophonist Wayne Shorter stepped into a demanding genre of improvisation, performing spontaneously as a duo, with no preset tunes or arrangements. Despite the abstract nature of the music, their performances were largely greeted by full crowds and favorable critical reviews.

This week at the Jazz Bakery, a considerably less visible duo--pianist Joanne Brackeen and saxophonist Ravi Coltrane--is taking on a similar task. Although most of their collaborations are based on preexisting material, the results are no less provocative--the product of two probingly imaginative musical minds. So one wonders why, on Wednesday night, so few listeners were in attendance, and whether the jazz celebrity aura attached to Hancock and Shorter can really make that much of a difference in what draws an audience. If so, it would be a shame.

Brackeen and Coltrane are offering music that--if different in style and content from Hancock and Shorter--is similarly compelling, a journey through a luxurious landscape filled with unexpected improvisational byways. A good part of the pleasure of hearing the interface between the pair stemmed from the opportunity to share their sense of discovery. The whiplash bebop line of “Cram ‘n Exam” (written by Brackeen) exploded in fast-fingered unison, a springboard for Coltrane’s own horn scouring improvisation.

A ballad rendering of “Time Was” (“Duerme” in Miguel Prado’s Mexican original) blended Brackeen’s thickly clustered harmonies and rhapsodic arpeggios with Coltrane’s unique cool sound and superheated runs. A final romp through “Giant Steps” served to link the 63-year-old Brackeen, who came to jazz in the late ‘50s, with the 36-year-old Coltrane, who was not quite 2 when his iconic father, John passed away.

There were, in addition, two other intriguing segments in the set. The first was a Brackeen solo excursion through “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” in which the stunning creativity of this vastly underappreciated pianist was on full display--initially disguising the tune with melodic fragments and thick, turbulent harmonies, eventually allowing its pure lyricism to rise to the surface. The second was a spontaneous improvisation between Brackeen and Coltrane in which their joint tendencies to rigorously examine every aspect of a harmonic phrase sometimes clashed, sometimes synchronized, but--like the balance of the program--always resulted in provocative music.

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Joanne Brackeen and Ravi Coltrane, Jazz Bakery, 3233 Helms Ave., Culver City. Tonight-Sunday at 8 and 9:30. $25. (310) 271-9039.