The ‘Mob’ will make heads bob at Blues Alley

It is a fairly well-known fact that jazz musicians scoot around the live music scene performing in combination with many other players as the occasion warrants. If you ask booking agent Mike Lipman about his client The Ivan Smart Mob and the jazz quintet’s performance Sunday night at Blues Alley, he will say honestly, “The audience is getting the best of five worlds because they will be listening to leaders of five bands. But there are not many bands around where the leader plays trumpet and flugelhorn.”

That would be Ivan Smart on the horns, and his original music with the Mob will be performed in his style, what he calls “soft changing [and] modernistic, like Miles Davis.” To achieve his particular style that focuses on different sounds and beats, he has had all his trumpets electrified. And he can count on the Mob (whose members worked with him on his CD, “Red Nights”) to blend right in.

“I feel I’ve [gotten] the best of the best,” Smart said of the ensemble.

His smooth-playing cohorts for the evening include guitarist Alvin White, who frequently plays with nationally known jazz pianist George Duke; Gary Grainger of the WPG Trio on bass; keyboardist Elliot Levine of The Elliot Levine Group; and drummer Larry Bright of the Larry Bright Group.

Bright, who lives in Las Vegas, conducts drum clinics while working part time at The B.B. King Club there. He looks forward to working again with Smart and especially performing the original cuts from “Red Nights” such as “Brother John,” “Little Girl Britt,” “Miles to Miles” and “The Way She Walks.”

“I like the different feels of the songs,” Bright said. “Each song is entirely different from the next.”

Bright explained that Smart plays the melody while the others back him up, and as the leader of the group, Smart controls all aspects of what goes on onstage.

“I like sounds, settings and beats more modern than standard jazz, [and] I want it to go right out to the crowd,” Smart said.

Bright reads his friend’s mind from halfway across the country.

“[Smart’s] main concern is looking out into the audience and seeing people’s heads moving up and down,” Bright said. “That’s what he strives for; that’s what makes him happy.”