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**1/2 Kenny Garrett

SONGBOOK

(Warner Bros.)

Garrett is the Jackie McLean of his generation -- an alto sax with chops, imagination, and a full-throated tone and attack that are all his own. His uptempo romps leap forward unpredictably. Smooth boppish runs, whinnying horse cries, sidelong excursions against tempo and key coalesce in clearly legible dramatic arcs. An alumnus of Miles Davis's later bands, Garrett can cover electric pop funk as easily as post-mod jazz abstraction.

Here he goes the acoustic route with one of the music's current hot rhythm sections: pianist Kenny Kirkland, bassist Nat Reeves, and drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts. The set is evenly divided between burning abstraction ("2 Down & 1 Across," where at one point everything drops out except sax and drums), so-so retro ballads ("She Waits for the New Sun"), and medium-tempo strolls ("Sounds of the Flying Pygmies"). The latter have harmless radio appeal, but the emphasis here is too heavy on the album's title. If Garrett weren't trying to write a "songbook" -- pieces that strain to become standards -- he might give himself more room to play.

-- Jon Garelick

(The Kenny Garrett Quartet -- with Kenny Kirkland, Nat Reeves, and Jeff "Tain" Watts -- play Scullers in the DoubleTree Guest Suites Hotel tonight, August 7; call 562-4111.)