POP MUSIC REVIEW : Progressive Country-Jazz From Alison Brown

When Alison Brown played a supporting role--as a member of bluegrass star Alison Krauss’ Union Station, and more recently as musical director for Michelle Shocked’s touring band--the banjo player seemed in her element.

But as a leader, fronting her own group at the Largo on Thursday, Brown didn’t show the charisma or the sense of adventure that would make her beyond-bluegrass excursions more than pleasant diversions.

Brown’s territory encompasses a sort of progressive country-jazz, a descendant of David Grisman’s eclecticism nudged into a new age mode. The absence of piano in the live show helped move the music away from new age cliches, but Brown’s democratic approach--solos were allotted pretty equally to her, to her guitarist and to her violinist-mandolinist--left things predictable and unfocused.

Brown manages to extract a nice, liquid tone from a sonically rigid instrument, and her restraint and sense of proportion served well her impressionistic compositions. But her show needs more flashes of fire than the one bluegrass rave-up at the end. Brown also opens for Richard Thompson on Sunday at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano and Monday at the Belly Up in Solana Beach, and is scheduled to play at an in-store appearance at Rhino Records in Santa Monica at 2:30 p.m. today.