He's played with everybody, but that doesn't mean he'll play with anybody.

Rufus Reid, in nearly four decades as a jazz professional, seems always to choose settings that display his full-hearted lyricism, well-centered tone and sturdy, supple phrasing. There may have been associations he hasn't been proud of, but he's likely to have made a contribution with integrity and pizazz to each one.

The 64-year-old bassist brought a group to the Jazz Kitchen on Friday night with Indianapolis stalwart Steve Allee on piano, plus an imaginative Brazilian percussionist, Duduka Da Fonseca. The trio has played widely spaced gigs in New York City and San Antonio within the past couple of years, and is poised to spend a couple of days in Allee's Brown County studio making a CD after it finishes a two-day stand at the Kitchen tonight.

Friday's first set showcased pieces by each of the trio's members, with Reid's "Caress the Thought" taking a central position. The episodic work had some moments of uncertainty, which did not even spare Reid's lengthy bowed solo at the outset. The piece unfolded interestingly, however, as each section had a distinct character, yet was attractively integrated into a meditative framework.

No doubt it could have used a memorable melody somewhere along the way. Reid acknowledged graciously his envy of Tadd Dameron's success in that department after playing "If You Could See Me Now," the set's main showcase for his bass playing, beautifully shaped dynamically and expressed with tender urgency.

The set opened with "The Cryin' Blues," a soulful Eddie Harris vehicle that functioned here as a sound check and an invitation to everyone on the bandstand to relearn some swinging rapport.

That set up nicely a Reid ballad, "Reminiscing," featuring some fine melodic interaction between bass and piano, and the fast, intense "You Make Me Smile," including a Da Fonseca solo rich in the tapestry of tom-toms, accented by convulsive bursts of hi-hat cymbals.

Allee's "Ebony," typically catchy and welcoming for improvisation, and Da Fonseca's "Dry Land," with its riveting triangle-and-bass pattern giving way to a theme that brought into play the pianist's most energetic excavations of low- and middle-register chords, completed the set.

On the basis of one-fourth of these two nights of music, it should be a fine CD.