The consistently elegant music that trumpeter Tom Harrell played Thursday night at the Jazz Showcase summed up why listeners revere his work.
For regardless of tempo, texture or tone, Harrell conveyed a signature, smoldering lyricism. Never did this music get loud or rambunctious; never did Harrell’s colleagues get in his way. The urgent melodicism of his art dominated the first set of an engagement that runs through Sunday.
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Harrell opened with a venerable standard, Jerome Kern’s “The Song Is You,” producing a pure, golden timbre on fluegelhorn. If this was a bit of nostalgia from a soloist who more typically spotlights original compositions, it was beautifully wrought. For Harrell began by playing the tune in fairly straightforward fashion before inventing alternate melodies on its famous chord changes.
Here was the essence of Harrell’s art: melodic strands that sounded at once surprising and inevitable. Danny Grissett’s shimmering pianism, bassist Ugonna Okegwo’s soft-and-buoyant lines and drummer Adam Cruz’s hushed-but-driving accompaniment added ambience without disturbing the delicacy of Harrell’s sound. A sure indication of the regard in which these musicians hold the bandleader.
From this point forth, Harrell turned to original compositions, most drawn from his latest album, “Moving Picture.”
He began with “Montego Bay,” his relentless syncopations and offbeat accents on fluegelhorn surely referencing the Jamaican locale. This was a sharp departure from the sweet-and-easy music-making of “The Song Is You,” Harrell and friends reveling in unexpected pauses, stops-and-starts and other forms of rhythmic mischief.
Harrell played trumpet on his “Gee, A. Bee,” also from “Moving Picture,” dramatically altering his sonic palette via the pinpoint precision of his tone and an emphasis on short, telegraphic phrases. Drummer Cruz brought edge to the proceedings with funk-tinged rhythms, yet, as always, the music proved soft-spoken and tautly controlled.
The centerpiece of the set changed the evening’s tonal vocabulary once again, as Harrell played trumpet and fluegelhorn in a duet with pianist Grissett in “Vibrer.” Also drawn from “Moving Picture,” “Vibrer” suggested a classical sonata, complete with multiple themes and sections, plus carefully scripted interchange between the two players.
In some moments, Harrell’s steeped-in-blues lines were accompanied by Grissett’s streaked-in-dissonance riffs. At other times, Harrell and Grissett rode the same rhythm while going their own ways melodically. In still other passages, they played cat-and-mouse, one chasing the other. Through it all, Harrell achieved profundity through economy, saying a great deal with a few well-chosen notes.
The full band closed the set with the title track of “Moving Picture,” Harrell’s long, silken lines on trumpet floating above a galloping accompaniment in triplets. Yet for all the energy and momentum in this piece, the music did not overwhelm the ear, these players expressing intensity without turning up the dial.
Even drummer Cruz’s solo — his most expansive of the set — emphasized layered rhythms and subtle shadings rather than mere volume and bombast.
When a band plays this well, it doesn’t need to shout. The craft speaks for itself.
Howard Reich is a Tribune critic.
Twitter @howardreich
When: 8 and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 4, 8 and 10 p.m. Sunday. Where: Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth Court. Tickets: $25-$45; 312-360-0234 or www.jazzshowcase.com
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