JAZZ REVIEW : Ben Sidran Leads Own Quartet

Ben Sidran opened Wednesday at the Vine St. Bar & Grill, removing his preaching hat (as journalist, author, radio and TV host) long enough to display his practicing head gear (singing, playing, leading his own quartet).

As a performer he revealed a quirky personality: a semi-conversational voice, a piano technique that seems often to be held in reserve, though at times he whipped into a solid be-bop groove and at one point even tossed in a little stride.

Sidran’s experiences in the worlds of British rock (he recorded with the Rolling Stones) may have helped him to feel comfortable imposing other disciplines on his jazz work, since he was evidently at ease with the quasi-fusion beat that launched his set.

The opening number was notable for a vocal sung in unison with his saxophonist, Bob Malach, a talented tenor soloist who seems to have avoided listening to all the wrong people.

A couple of Sidran’s own songs displayed intriguing lyrical imagery; “I Want to Be a Bebopper” carried an amusing anti-electronic-music message. The longest, but not the strongest, of his originals was a series of non sequiturs about the supposed essentials for a jazz musician--a bad romance, a good travel agent, etc. More ingenious was a lyric that consisted almost entirely of a string of jazz pianists’ names.

His revisions of the works of others were fairly successful, among them a new set of lyrics replacing the old, sexist words to “Girl Talk,” and a slight reworking of “Sunny Side of the Street.”

Ricky Peterson on electric bass and Gordy Knudtson on drums rounded out Sidran’s unpretentiously entertaining unit, which will be at Vine St. through Sunday.