JAZZ REVIEW : George Coleman Plays Standards at Catalina

Although George Coleman’s tenor saxophone has been an audible and laudable part of the jazz scene since the late 1950s, his appearances as a leader have been intermittent. When he opened Tuesday at the Catalina Bar and Grill, it was a safe assumption that he would be unable to bring an organized unit from New York and would rely on local musicians.

This is precisely what happened, and as might also have been predicted, the program sounded as if Coleman had told his men: “Round up the usual standards.”

Out came a blues, an “I Got Rhythm” variation under the guise of Sonny Rollins’ “Oleo,” a Latin jazz piece called “Ceora,” Freddie Hubbard’s lilting waltz “Up Jumped Spring” and, as a brief tongue-in-cheek closing theme, “Twelfth Street Rag.”

Through it all Coleman displayed the qualities that have kept him regularly in demand, though hardly in the forefront: great energy, sometimes to excess, a distinctive and occasionally somewhat hollow sound, and an enviable storehouse of technique.

Coleman’s ability to build tension through a series of choruses may last through an entire solo, or it may begin to flag, as was the case during “Good Morning, Heartache.” This song, designed as a tender ballad, soon lapsed into double time with an overwrought Coleman resorting to that nemesis of every jazz purist, the saxophonic squeal.

Some of the most dazzling moments throughout the set were provided by Billy Childs, who seems to have every stylistic device at his command. During one solo he moved from a repeated rhythm pattern to dense, exotic chords to long single-note lines to a puckish “From Thelonious Monk.” He may well be the fastest-rising pianist on the Southland scene. Bassist Larry Gales and drummer Ralph Penland completed a first-rate rhythm section, though it hardly seemed necessary to include a drum solo in every other number.

The quartet closes Sunday.