That’s totally understandable, given that this was only gig No. 2, and one expects that Mehldau, McBride and Gilmore will quickly ramp things up as they move into SFJAZZ Center and then Kuumbwa.

Soon after, Mr. Fortner’s trio, with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Marcus Gilmore, lend the tune a distinctly New Orleanian cadence Toussaint once described to me as the “strut of the ...