PHIL WOODS QUINTET IS IN ITS USUAL FINE FORM

The Phil Woods Quintet is in town for another of its all too brief visits, this time at Catalina’s in a three-night run that ends this evening.

Woods is one of the fortunate few who can claim to have a band, as opposed to a bunch of locally recruited assistants. His trumpeter, Tom Harrell, is a veritable babe in the Woods, having joined up only four years ago. Pianist Hal Galper is in his seventh year as a Woods sideman. Bassist Steve Gilmore and drummer Bill Goodwin are founder members, having been on hand when the group was formed in 1975.

What is important is not just that these musicians are thoroughly familiar with one another, but that they have a common sense of direction. Woods has at his command enough technique and imagination to put his alto saxophone through the most frenetic of paces, yet he knows how to rein in his power. Consequently, nothing emerges from his horn sounding either perfunctory or excessively ostentatious.

This characteristic is shared by his colleagues. The unison lines by Woods and Harrell in the statements of themes (some of them written by Harrell or Galper) come as close as is humanly possible to sounding like two minds with a single thought.

When not playing, Harrell offers his by now celebrated impression of a man asleep standing up. His eccentric personality is immediately belied when, either on trumpet or fluegelhorn, he suddenly comes to life, displaying a rare lyricism and a sense of continuity. His solo number, the only standard tune played during the first set, was Ray Noble’s “The Touch of Your Lips,” to which he brought a haunting quality that matched the tune’s harmonic beauty, as did the understated and consistently melodic support by Galper.

For the finale, a number that sounded vaguely like an old Charlie Parker piece, Woods and Harrell crossed swords, playing two lines contrapuntally to dazzling effect. Gilmore and Goodwin, another like-minded couple, provided the kind of rhythmic stimulus that is born of long-term compatibility.

Sad to say, there are in contemporary acoustic jazz very few groups that have managed to retain both a steady personnel and a distinctive identity. Phil Woods and his empathetic friends have brought themselves to the pinnacle among this select minority.