Glover's frenetic feet write new chapter

The formidable style of Savion Glover, the gifted prince of the tap dance lineage that's been handed down from Jimmy Slyde to Buster Brown to Gregory Hines, invites all sorts of hyperbolic comparisons.

An overzealous baby boomer might liken his style to the wigged-out guitar feedback of Jimi Hendrix. Their children might think of Eddie Van Halen. For jazz devotees, his feet may seem possessed by the spirit of Charlie Parker or John Coltrane.

A musical analogy is apt here, since Glover, who performed Friday at the Byham Theater, seems to be morphing into musician before our eyes. The show, titled "Improvography," featured Glover staking a claim to the jazz idiom. Wearing his trademark dreadlocks, with an orange shirt and baggy black pants that were soon soaked with perspiration, Glover used his feet like a be-bop instrumentalist.

Backed by the Otherz, a nimble, self-assured quartet, he rode the jazz groove like a surfer atop a giant wave, turning the Byham Theater into an intimate uptown club.

He and the band pushed each other, sometimes skirmishing in a flurry of breathless, double-time beats. He traded licks with double bassist Andy McCloud. He engaged in call and response with sax player Patience Higgins. Those famous feet spit out a mesmerizing flurry of sixteenth and thirty-second notes over four bars, or created a percussive effect by a slow dragging of one foot.

The group opened with a bluesy chord progression that recalled the slouchy rhythm of "So What," the lead off track on the landmark Miles Davis album "Kind of Blue." The quintet cooked for nearly 25 minutes on this riff, as Glover got a glow on that got positively giddier as the evening went on. He smiled, he mugged. He even sang "The Way You Look Tonight" in his sweetly imperfect voice.

"Please," he muttered at one point as the audience applauded. "Please. Please, don't stop."

He sure didn't. Glover's beatific smile and goofy enthusiasm proved infectious. The fact that he was having so much fun himself may have consoled some audience members who were expecting just a little of the polite, Broadway razzle-dazzle tap style. And the relentless drive of Glover and band, those constant slamming beats, sometimes pummeled you into submission instead of sweeping you along.

Act Two featured Glover performing with quartet Chapter IV. Maurice Chestnut, Cartier Williams and Ashley DeForest. Nobody could say these three young dancers, didn't have chops, particularly during a hip-hop ensemble number, but they seemed diminished next to Glover's charisma.