Burrell Teaches Jam Session 101 at Bakery

Guitarist Kenny Burrell’s Saturday night performance at the Jazz Bakery was intended to serve as a party to applaud the release of his new album on Concord, “The Jazz Heritage All Stars.� Adding icing to the cake, the event also celebrated Burrell’s current appointment as the director of UCLA’s jazz program.

For the overflow audience, however, the performance was more than a party; it was an opportunity to witness an old-fashioned jam session. And Burrell kept the proceedings basic, straight-ahead and full of excitement with an all-star ensemble that included Sherman Ferguson, drums; Tom Ranier, piano; Roberto Miranda, bass; Herman Riley, tenor saxophone and flute; Oscar Brashear, trumpet; Garnett Brown, trombone; and Barbara Morrison and Ruth Price, vocals.

The premise of the “Jazz Heritage� group is, Burrell said, an exploration of music from every era of jazz. But, with the exception of Louis Armstrong’s “Struttin’ With Some Barbecue� at one end of the historical spectrum and Chick Corea’s “Tones for Joan’s Bones� at the other, the music--and the soloing, especially--was right down the middle of the mainstream.

Burrell’s lush, romantic sound was smooth and easygoing on Dizzy Gillespie’s “Con Alma� and Thad Jones’ lovely “A Child Is Born.� Brown offered several dark-toned solos enlivened by the gutsy soul-jazz phrasing essential to his playing. Brashear was characteristically bright and brassy with everything he touched. And Riley nearly stole the show with a rock-’em, sock-’em, get-the- crowd-cheering set of choruses on Duke Ellington’s “Cotton Tail.� In the rhythm section, the lesser-known Miranda added some striking impromptus, Ferguson was predictably dependable, and Ranier produced golden moments with his too rare solo passages.

Price, whose thoughtful balladry has taken a back seat to her work as the Bakery’s musical director, contributed a soaring, lyrical rendering of “Blame It on My Youth,� and Morrison--ever the driving blues singer--brought her rousing, Dinah Washington-style articulation to “Mood Indigo.�