Artist is bigger than the room

Bassist Victor Bailey has worked with everyone from Weather Report and the Zawinul Syndicate to Madonna and Mary J. Blige. He is, in other words, a player with a far-ranging set of skills. One doesn’t replace the inimitable Jaco Pastorius in Weather Report and then move on to provide the rhythmic foundation for a demanding pop icon like Madonna without possessing a fair share of one’s own creative impulses.

Yet as Bailey sardonically pointed out on Wednesday night at Catalina Bar & Grill, the moderate-size crowd greeting his opening set was in startling contrast to the crowds of 5,000 and 6,000 that turned out for his recent European tour. Not quite a prophet without honor in his own country, Bailey nonetheless receives far more appropriate attention overseas than he does in his U.S. performances.

Listening to his provocative opening set, one could only wonder why that was the case, why such an imaginative, immensely communicative artist would have a minimal number of recordings under his own name, why he would only be booked for a pair of nights in a room such as Catalina’s. There wasn’t a dull moment in his set, performed by a sterling ensemble that also included saxophonist Benny Maupin, pianist Patrice Rushen and drummer Poogie Bell.

Two pieces were particularly impressive. Maupin’s “Steamy,” in which he played bass clarinet, was based upon a mesmerizing rhythmic ostinato, similar to the sort of thing he wrote for Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters in the ‘70s. Starting with an atmospheric soundscape provided by Rushen’s synthesizer, enhanced by the eerie, low-frequency sounds of the bass clarinet, the piece blossomed into a churning rhythmic whirlwind.

Riding its crest, Maupin, also too little recognized, whipped around his horn, generating a wild array of sounds, calling out into the primordial musical wilderness. In the second highlight, Bailey paid tribute to Pastorius with “Do You Know Who He Was?” based on the great bassist’s piece, “Continuum.” Not only did Bailey write lyrics for the basic line, he also composed a set of remarkable vocalese words for Pastorius’ solo, and played and sang both, an extraordinary feat. He was outstanding in the balance of the set, often singing along with a line, scatting with his own improvisations, strumming brisk harmonic accents on his four-string bass and adding occasional passages of whistling to the mix.

It was a performance as entertaining as it was musically captivating: the work of an artist who should be heard more often, by larger audiences, for the very good reason that he has something important to say.