*** Stefon Harris

BLACK ACTION FIGURE

(Blue Note)

Jazz's mainstream wunderkind of the moment is a vibes player with chops to spare, and he can write, too. On his instrument he's got speed, imagination, and dynamics. In his rhythm-player mode he conjures Lionel Hampton's motivic swing; when he's feeling lyrical, he employs Milt Jackson-like vibrato and sustain. He likes to mix up his attack in any given song, and he knows how to squeeze the greatest expression from the full range of his instrument: the low notes can clang like giant, tamped temple bells, the highs sing with glockenspiel sweetness. His improvised lines fly at all altitudes and angles; on his "Feline Blues," he takes a breathtaking dead fall from the top of the scale to the bottom, negotiating a series of pirouettes on the way down.

On this, his second album, he also attractively varies arrangements and personnel. Trombonist Steve Turre flexes his bebop side while keeping pace with Harris's rhythms, Greg Osby's alto is typically angular and minimalist, tenor-sax Gary Thomas supplies appropriate muscle. Harris employs them for solo piquancy in straight blowing tunes, and for little-big-band mass and color in more elaborate arrangements (Thomas's flute helps). A couple of tunes cloy with their sweetness and familiarity ("Collage," "Alovi"), but Harris has the range -- from free ensemble passages to tightly arranged balladry -- to keep things interesting.

-- Jon Garelick

(The Stefon Harris Quartet, along with the Jason Moran Trio and the Greg Osby Quartet, play the Regattabar this Tuesday and Wednesday, October 5 and 6. Call 876-7777.)