Overflow Crowd Helps Pisano Celebrate Rocco Anniversary

John Pisano’s Monday night guitar sessions at Rocco’s in Bel-Air have become one ofthe Southland’s more delightful jazz experiences. With appearances by artists ranging from the youthful Anthony Wilson to the veteran Herb Ellis, the performances have become a destination of choice for jazz fans eager to share intimate, improvisational encounters between talented guitarists.

On Monday night, Pisano celebrated his first anniversary at Rocco’s (he previously held similar sessions in other venues) with appearances by Ellis, Mundell Lowe and the rarely heard Ted Greene. An overflow audience turned out for the event in such numbers that a crowd was clustered outside the club, eager to hear and see what they could through the once-shuttered windows that Rocco now leaves open.

The first set featured the three-guitar front line of Lowe, Ellis and Pisano, backed by bassist Jim Hughart and drummer Greg Fields.

Given the spontaneous quality of the evening, the program understandably concentrated on standards--”I Love You,” “There’s a Small Hotel,” “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You” and “Body and Soul” among them. Pisano, as usual, took a supportive role, his crisp, rhythmic comping interacting with Hughart and Fields to provide a soaring, magic carpet of rhythm to sustain the soloing of Lowe and Ellis.

Lowe’s playing has always blended thoughtfulness with a swinging drive, and, at 78, he revealed no diminution in skills, offering a series of solos filled with appealing melodic twists and turns. Ellis, also 78, doesn’t have the fleet articulateness he once did, but his soloing, filled with bop-derived lines, consistently recalled the blues roots that are at the heart of his playing.

Interestingly, the modest Pisano, in his brief solo passages, offered the most intriguing improvising in the entire set, his tendency to shift in different directions constantly offering unexpected musical surprises.

Brown’s brief solo set, however, was a revelation. Playing only four tunes, some of them unlikely jazz choices--”A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes,” “April Showers,” “Lover Man” and “When Sunny Gets Blue”--he kept the audience in held-breath silence.

Chording with great harmonic subtlety, he sometimes simply sketched the bare outlines of a melody. At other times he sounded like two players, laying down a simultaneous bass line to accompany dense chordal clustering. It was the performance of a master, fully acknowledged by the many professional guitarists in the audience.

And it’s a shame that Greene, who reportedly does not enjoy public appearances and devotes much of his time to teaching and writing, is so rarely heard.