Philly jazz favorites Kevin Eubanks and Orrin Evans brought deep musical conversation to World Cafe Live

Guitarist Kevin Eubanks and keyboardist Orrin Evans obviously had a goal in mind when they dubbed their collaboration the Eubanks Evans Experience. The duo’s performance at World Cafe Live on Friday night placed the emphasis on creating an intimate experience for the hometown crowd, with an uninterrupted hour’s worth of spontaneous, deeply engaged interplay conjuring an entrancing mood.

Eubanks is most famous for his decade-and-a-half stint as Jay Leno’s bandleader on The Tonight Show beginning in the mid-1990s. When that high-profile gig ended in 2010, he returned to the eclectic jazz career he’d largely put on hold. Evans is no stranger to Philly jazz fans, being one of the city’s most prolific artists as well as one of its most tireless champions. In recent years the rest of the world has finally caught on, culminating in two Grammy nominations for his Captain Black Big Band, among other accolades.

The duo’s tightwire-walking performance on Friday seemed to suggest a lifetime of playing together, but the collaboration is a fairly recent one despite the shared roots. Seventeen years older than Evans, Eubanks was already making waves on the national jazz scene by the time the pianist began to establish himself in Philly. The two worked together for the first time on Evans’ 2016 release #knowingishalfthebattle, reteaming for Eubanks’ 2017 album East West Time Line.

They released their first full-length outing, EEE (Eubanks-Evans Experience), last month on Evans’ Imani Records label, featuring a pair of songs recorded at Chris’ Jazz Cafe alongside studio recordings. Some of the pieces from the album were reprised at World Cafe, but the specifics of what they played on Friday were far less important than the exhilarating, continuously evolving dialogue shared by the two throughout the evening.

Playing Fender Rhodes exclusively, the usually garrulous Evans set straight to work when the duo took the stage, laying down a series of atmospheric chords to which Eubanks responded with airy, agile runs. The mood was never allowed to settle into one place for long; no one would have objected if Evans had sustained the funky groove he hit upon, spurring the guitarist into blistering outbursts, but soon enough he was unleashing fire and brimstone gospel before Eubanks steered the mood into soulful balladry.

“Feed the Fire,” a piece by the late pianist Geri Allen, emerged at one point, its spiraling melody providing a touchstone that both men twisted through an unending series of inventive variations, and Evans danced around Miles Davis’ “All Blues” for a time while Eubanks fidgeted with his setup, letting hints of the tune drift in and out of focus. But the music, a blend of favorite classics and original tunes, merely served as landmarks along an exploratory wander.

The journey was the point here, the spirit fluidly shifting from sultry to playful to tender, silken beauty to gut-rumbling blues. It wrapped up on a stunning version of the Gershwins’ “Summertime,” with volleying back and forth that seemed sometimes like banter, sometimes like taunting.

Kuf Knotz and Christine Elise opened the show with a blissed-out marriage of hip-hop, neo-soul, and Elise’s shimmering harp playing. The 40-minute set featured hypnotic grooves and positive affirmations, ending on a call-and-response chant of “self love.”