MUSIC

David 'Fathead' Newman

Saxophonist David "Fathead" Newman capped his opening set at Twins Jazz on Friday night by hoisting his tenor and tipping his hat to Ray Charles. "Hit the Road Jack" inspired a relaxed, vibrant and evocative tribute. Newman, who spent a dozen years playing alongside Charles in the '50s and '60s, released a wonderful CD dedicated to the late R&B legend last year titled "I Remember Brother Ray." Friday night's performance, though, offered a broader view of Newman's repertoire.

Nothing proved more soulful than Newman's interpretation of the Billy Strayhorn ballad "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing," but a similarly affecting performance of "Time After Time" came close. Both performances featured Newman on tenor, infusing the melodies with an unusually warm, resonating tone. By contrast, Newman's flute work on "Delilah" and "Cousin Esau" was brightly lyrical, recalling the glory days of soul-jazz. Newman's playful spirit provoked laughter, especially when he briefly quoted melodies from familiar jazz and pop tunes.

Accompanying Newman were pianist Allyn Johnson, bassist Steve Novosel and drummer Harold Mann, who deftly wielded sticks, brushes and mallets. Johnson enlivened the set with cresting solos that contrasted single-note chromaticism with a two-fisted chordal attack. Novosel effortlessly sustained the ebb-and-flow pulse that often came into play, and his solos were typically concise and melodic. Newman performs Feb. 19 at the East Coast Jazz Festival at the Doubletree Hotel in Rockville. The five-day event begins Feb 16.

-- Mike Joyce

Getaway Car

Maybe after seeing three other bands Friday night, the kids were just tuckered out. Virginia's Getaway Car, the headliner at an all-ages, all-locals show at the 9:30 club, took the stage at nearly midnight and received first an enthusiastic, then tepid, then completely indifferent response from the audience.

The crowd's nonchalance wasn't a reflection of the trio's fine hour-long performance, however, and front man Todd Wright took it in stride. In between a string of radio-friendly pop songs and power ballads from the band's first LP, "All Your Little Pieces" -- think Fountains of Wayne flavored with a little Bon Jovi -- Wright moved things along with a sunny and sometimes odd sense of humor. (Acting like a baby boomer though he looks no older than 30, he asked if the audience remembered way back when Getaway Car was a hair-metal band and claimed that he saw high school pals in the crowd whose kids were now in high school themselves.)

Invitations to sing along were occasionally met with silence, and when the group closed its set and did the now-perfunctory leave-'em-wanting-more walk off stage, audience members walked out the door. Wright shrugged it off: Before the band baffled their remaining young fans by doing a cover of the Beatles' "She Said She Said" with a little "My Generation" thrown in, Wright cheerily pronounced their return as "the most pathetic encore in history."

-- Tricia Olszewski