Duo Practically Does Entire Ken Burns Series in One Song

Ajazz duo may be the most demanding of instrumental combinations--musicaltightrope walking without a net, in which the players are constantly obliged to find a mutual sense of creative balance.

But when it works, as it did with clarinetist Eddie Daniels and pianist Roger Kellaway at the Jazz Bakery Tuesday night, it is a joy to experience. The veteran duo, opening a weeklong run during which a recording will be extracted from the best performances, was in rare form from the start of the very first number.

Beginning with some spontaneous, free-floating improvisation, they gradually shaped their interaction until it surfaced as the beginning of the opening number, the Vincent Youmans standard “I Want to Be Happy.” Even here, however, once into the tune’s specific melodic and harmonic structure, Daniels and Kellaway moved with remarkable freedom. The rhythms ebbed and flowed, fragments of stylistic variation darted, like bright colors, through the fabric of the music, the entire process energized by the sheer creative electricity flowing between the two players.

When the piece finally ended, Daniels jokingly noted, “Well, we just did the entire Ken Burns series in one song.”

Which actually wasn’t much of an exaggeration. The level of improvisation and musical duality taking place between Daniels and Kellaway could only have been produced by players with technique, imagination and a historical overview of the entire panorama of jazz.

Although the opening piece established a remarkably high level of achievement, there was no drop in quality as the set continued. Working with other familiar standards--Eubie Blake’s “Memories of You,” Guy Wood’s “My One and Only Love”--as well as jazz items such as the Benny Goodman-Chick Webb classic “Stompin’ at the Savoy” and Thelonious Monk’s “Well You Needn’t,” the duo found a cornucopia of improvisational riches in each.

Often humorous--Daniels tossed in a Woody Woodpecker quote at one point--the pair connected in such symbiotic fashion that they could stretch and diminish phrases, open their lines with dramatic pauses, and find ways to conclude in complete synchronization.

It’s worth noting that each player is a virtuoso, and neither hesitated to use a full panoply of technical abilities. But fast-fingered lines always served a purpose--often providing bright slashes of musical color, never delivered as showboating displays of skill.

The evening was, in short, an example of chamber jazz at its best, produced by a pair of artists who walked their musical tightrope without a single misstep.

* Eddie Daniels and Roger Kellaway at the Jazz Bakery, 3233 Helms Ave. Tonight through Sunday at 8 and 9:30 p.m., $22 admission. (310) 271-9039.