For the Group, a Plain-Wrap Name, Hard-Bop Sound

Despite its generic title, the Group is not a generic jazz band. “We just haven’t come up with a better name,” drummer Frank Capp explained from the Steamers Cafe bandstand during the Group’s Friday appearance in Fullerton--only their second performance together.

Obviously, the piano-guitar foursome has been spending its time with musical concerns rather than coming up with a catchy moniker. The Group has a strong, hard-swinging musical identity that results from shared musical personalities. Although the formalities of the numbers--beginnings, bridges and endings--weren’t always hammered together perfectly, the spirit and the rhythms were solid as stone.

Capp, the able drummer who leads the Frank Capp Juggernaut big band, has found like-thinking mates in pianist Jon Mayer (who chooses and arranges most of the material) and guitarist Barry Zweig. The assertive attack of bassist Andy Simpkins, who replaced Jeff Littleton on this engagement, fits right in with the band’s all-out approach. Playing in a no-holds-barred, hard-bop style that was interrupted by just one ballad, the Group seemed to suggest adding a single word to Duke Ellington’s memorable line: It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that hard swing.

The Group didn’t miss the focus that a horn brings to the combo setting. Nor did the inclusion of two harmonic instruments--piano and guitar--make for the clutter and hit-and-miss harmonies that sometimes result. Mayer most often took the thematic lead as Zweig added color and pulse behind him. Less frequently, Zweig played upfront, with the piano providing accompaniment. Occasionally, as on the standard “If You Could See Me Now,” they shared lead duties, switching off at the chorus.

Rhythm was central as Capp and Simpkins combined for tempos that rocked, surged and powered forward. The muscular timekeeping resulted in improvisations that were equally strong. Mayer especially reflected the beats in his solos, sometimes recalling Les McCann as he dwelt on gospel-inspired riffs and bluesy asides.

Zweig’s solos carried the strongest sense of individualism, mixing chordal passages and surprising phrases in a way that left the tune’s melody far behind. His face alternately twisted and shone as he raced around the frets, often layering his lines unpredictably against Capp’s snare and cymbal chatter.

The Group got right into the hot tempos, playing Frank Strazzeri’s “Night on the Bayou” at a heated pace, then hitting the exclamations in Mayer’s tune, “Round Up the Usual Suspects,” with intensity. Mayer seemed ready to carry on at this level until Capp suggested a ballad, Mal Waldron’s “Soul Eyes,” that featured a stout solo from Simpkins backed quietly by both piano and guitar.

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From there, the band jumped right back into up-tempo material, burning through Sonny Rollins’ “Oleo” and playing “Without a Song” at a speed that made it hard to recognize. Things slowed down just a bit at the close of the set, with the group performing Kenny Barron’s melodic, mid-tempo excursion “Voyage,” made popular by saxophonist Stan Getz.

Occasionally, the momentum slowed as the combo looked for ways to draw tunes (and sometimes solos) to a close. But even these improvised endings, coming as Mayer called out directions across the bandstand, served to show how attuned the musicians were to the music and to one another.