JAZZ REVIEW : TROMBONE MEETS FLUTE

The trombone, a Cinderella in the jazz world these days, has produced no significant new voices in the last decade or so. To hear its potential fully explored, one must rely on such veterans as Slide Hampton, who on Tuesday evening made an all-too-rare local appearance, heading a group of Southland musicians at Catalina’s Bar and Grill.

Though well established as a composer, Hampton had to depend for this gig on material familiar to the musicians hired to surround him. In fact, you could have bet 8 to 5 that in the first half-hour the band would play a blues, as well as the inevitable “Autumn Leaves.” Which is precisely what happened.

Still, these chestnuts played by a soloist of Hampton’s caliber take on the personal character of pure, raw be-bop; moreover, in Holly Hoffman he had an engaging partner to share the front line. Her flute provided a piquant contrast, particularly when she played the melody and Hampton offered filigree ad libs on such tunes as the lushly elegant Ellington melody “In a Sentimental Mood.”

Putting a flute alongside a trombone might seem like tossing a terrier in a cage with a tiger, yet these two made it work, despite the occasional timidity evinced by Hoffman. They closed with a lively exchange of fours on Charlie Parker’s “Yardbird Suite,” complete with the inevitable drum solo, played tastefully enough by Sherman Ferguson.

Bob Hammer at the piano and Larry Gales on bass completed the quintet. As is customary, Gales played most of his solos with a bow, displaying the technical skill for which he has long been known.

Next time Hampton is presented in town, it would be even more rewarding to hear him with an organized unit, playing his own music.