Pianist Benny Green has been visiting the Jazz Showcase since the early 1990s, back then in the company of eminent bassist Ray Brown.
Green’s work has been consistently polished and tautly controlled, but the opening-night set he performed Thursday night at the club offered something more: a degree of rhythmic freedom and two-fisted power not often encountered from him. The combination of his well-established instrumental authority with a markedly bolder keyboard attack made this one of Green’s most compelling performances to date.
It was thrown somewhat off balance, however, by the presence of a vocalist of some potential who performed way too long for the occasion and on far too grand a scale for the intimate dimensions of the room. In effect, the appearance by singer Veronica Swift felt as if a train had barreled through the middle of Green’s set, offering relief when it finally disappeared into the distance.
Green opened the evening in classic form, crafting beautifully sculpted right-hand lines and establishing high tonal sheen in Ronnell Bright’s “Be a Sweet Pumpkin.” In so doing, Green reminded listeners that he long has been an upholder of several jazz traditions, not surprising for a first-rate musician who was a protege of one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century, Oscar Peterson.
But even here, at the outset of the night, something fresh emerged as Green proceeded with Bright’s tune. Jagged chords, sharp staccato utterances and unmistakable ferocity of expression suggested Green was ramping up for a stormy night ahead.
Sure enough, when he turned to Horace Silver’s “The St. Vitus Dance,” he sounded practically liberated, taking a brisk tempo and approaching rhythm more loosely than usual. He may not have conjured quite the sonic edge of Silver himself at the piano, but the whirring quality of Green’s right-hand lines and the sheer rhythmic drive he summoned with bassist David Wong and drummer David Alvarez III were viscerally exciting to hear.
The same held true in Donald Byrd’s “French Spice,” Green’s sleekly articulated opening passages giving rise to fast-flying figurations in his right hand and rhythmically edgy counterpoint in his left. More important, the sheer creativity of the lines he produced pointed to a pianist interested in much more than merely making noise.
Green was generous in his comments introducing singer Swift to the stage, but she shattered the moment with an overwrought, oversold account of Cole Porter’s “I Get a Kick Out of You.” Her loud, mechanical, nearly breathless attempt to mimic the vocal flights of Ella Fitzgerald amounted to the antitheses of what made the greatest female jazz singer of them all inimitable. For Swift plowed through this music relentlessly, as if trying to beat it – and the audience – into submission. Yes, she offered up plenty of technique and zillions of notes, but precious little music.
The singer calmed down in “As Long as He Needs Me” (from “Oliver!”), showing a measure of tenderness and ample vocal control. But she erred in substituting her own, inferior lyrics for Oscar Brown, Jr.’s magical words in a classic song expressing a child’s sense of wonder, “Dat Dere.” And, once again, one wished Swift would stop screaming at her listeners.
Swift professed her love for singer June Christy before launching into Pete Rugolo’s “Interlude,” but unlike Christy, Chris Connor, Anita O’Day and other supreme vocalists of an earlier era, Swift has not yet learned how to project her voice at hushed dynamics. Yet when Swift offered her own vocalese for a Stan Getz saxophone solo in “Pennies from Heaven,” she showed a musical intelligence, verbal hipness and rhythmic finesse suggesting she has something significant to say – when she isn’t trying to overwhelm her listeners.
Once Swift left the stage, a welcome equilibrium returned, Green getting earthy with Freddie Hubbard’s “Down Under” and achieving hyper-virtuosity on Cedar Walton’s “Groundwork.”
What this show needs: more Green, less Swift.
Howard Reich is a Tribune critic.
Twitter @howardreich
When: Various times through Sunday
Where: Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth Court
Tickets: $30-$45; 312-360-0234 or www.jazzshowcase.com
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