JAZZ REVIEW : JAMES WILLIAMS QUINTET IN TODAY’S MAINSTREAM

The James Williams quintet did just about everything right during its performance Wednesday at At My Place. The New York-based pianist’s group played invigorating, contemporary mainstream jazz, most of it original, with passion, articulation and clarity, and while much of the music heard was complicated, it was also melodic and accessible.

The success of the engagement was a tribute to Williams, who picked first-rate tunes and programmed them ideally, and his formidable cohorts--two fellow Easterners in tenor saxophonist Billy Pierce and guitarist Kevin Eubanks--plus a pair of the best local jazzmen--drummer Billy Higgins and bassist Richard Reid.

Eubanks’ “The Navigator” worked from a long ebbing-and-flowing rhythmic undercurrent, established by the guitarist and Higgins, to a brisk melodic passage--a change that resembled driving over a long straight stretch of highway, then suddenly encountering a series of sharp curves. In solo spots, Eubanks mixed bright, metallic-tinged single-note lines with dusky chords, while Pierce, a Coltrane devotee, played flurries of notes, then went with more economical displays. Williams’ “Renaissance Lovers,” a handsome ballad, opened with a long, unaccompanied section by the leader that was rhythmically free and richly mellifluous, though hardly baroque.

“Calvary,” a Gospel number, was given an unusual treatment--part down-to-earth and part scintillating modern improvising--highlighted by the subtly colorful saxophone-guitar front-line blend. Here Higgins laid out ringing backbeats, setting up Eubanks, whose chunky notes had hard centers and soft edges; Pierce, who was suddenly an intellectual Mr. Funk, and Williams, who only enhanced this head-shaking, Art Blakey-ish groove. The very fast “Progress Report” added a cooling balance.