JAZZ REVIEW : NOTHING BUT HIGH NOTES AT FEST

The 1,000 aficionados attending the Pacific Coast Jazz Festival at the Irvine Holiday Inn Sunday got their money’s worth. And then some.

Twelve first-rate groups offered music simultaneously in the Avalon, San Clemente and Catalina second-floor conference rooms from 2 until about 11 p.m., so that a listener starting with a ravenous appetite could saunter from room to room, sampling this aural buffet well past the saturation point. It was, as festival promoter Fred Norsworthy admitted, “too much music.”

But it was too much of such good music. With a focus on mainstream jazz from the ‘50s to the present, the program, sponsored by Orange Coast College, featured many top-ranking artists rarely heard here, and others worth hearing often.

From New York came notables like pianists Walter Bishop and Ronnie Mathews, drummer Jimmy Cobb, bassist Ray Drummond, trombonist Bob Brookmeyer and saxophonist Harold Vick, who, collectively, have enhanced the bands of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan and Johnny Griffin. Baritone sax great Pepper Adams was scheduled to attend, but canceled because of illness.

There was no shortage of prime local talent, either. Gerald Wilson’s always dynamic orchestra was on hand, as was the fervent post-bop fivesome led by altoists Frank Morgan and Charles McPherson. Pianist Claude Williamson, who left the scene two decades ago to write commercial music, surfaced, as did fluegelhornist Shorty Rogers, the renowned ‘50s bandleader/arranger who has chiefly been composing film music for nearly 25 years. The vocal group Feather and singers Stephanie Haynes and Jack Sheldon (who also played trumpet) added a lyric touch. The bands of trombonist Mike Fahn and guitarist Robert Conti rounded out the lineup.

Some of these artists worked overtime too. The Mathews-Drummond-Cobb trio played two sets of their own, then backed Morgan and McPherson for a pair. Drummer Dick Berk backed Bishop and Sheldon, and Williamson was heard with his trio, Sheldon and Conti.

The festival started on a high note and stayed that way. Mathews, a masterful modernist who plays with crisp articulation, mixed tinkling, funky lines with loping swinging remarks on “Summertime.” For “Salima’s Dance,” Drummond and Cobb established a groove that swayed between a held-back feeling and a fiery let-go release, on which the leader turned out tremolos that glowed amidst other surely struck phrases. (Later, the threesome bashed out a vital “Up Jumped Spring,” with Cobb sparking things with snappy snare drum accents.)

Meanwhile, Bishop’s quintet (trumpeter Dizzy Reece, tenor sax man Harold Vick, bassist Bob Magnusson and Berk) moved smoothly through “Billie’s Bounce” and “Star Eyes,” with Vick a standout. The tall, lanky horn man offered relaxed, reflective lines that glided as much as swung, and were constructed ingeniously. Bishop’s work was low key but effective.

Rogers’ first set spotlighted his trademark interweaving orchestrations. The soft, cloudy tones of the leader’s fluegelhorn and reed man Bill Perkins’ tenor sax intermingled delightfully on the quietly exotic “Yesterday, Today and Forever,” and Perkins’ came forth with a memorable soprano sax solo on “Have You Hugged Your Martian Today?” Pianist Pete Jolly starred on “I Should Care,” demonstrating his lush, romantic bent with a flowing, notes-here, notes-there intro that led to sparkling, cascading lines and locked hands work a la Erroll Garner.

In between these groups, one heard a warm-toned, in-form Brookmeyer, reviewed here last week; Haynes, whose wispy, airy voice came across on a high-spirited “Out of the Night”; Fahn, a valve trombonist with a rich sound and good ideas, who kicked out a stirring “What Is This Thing Called Love?” where pianist Tad Weed soared with spinning, twisting ideas; Conti, who, possessing enough technique for two men, was dazzling with scampering double-times and scrumptious chorded passages on “Wave” and an unaccompanied “Stella by Starlight,” and Sheldon, who interspersed brilliant horn lines and vocals on “Ain’t Misbehavin’ ” and “Do Nothing ‘Til You Hear From Me” with 10 minutes of jokes about everything from a pretty girl’s short skirt to a variety of diets.

Three sensational sets were among those that closed the event.

Wilson started with a well-worn blues, “You Better Believe It,” where after rippling solos from (son) Anthony Wilson, pianist Harold Land Jr. and saxophonist Harold Land Sr., he directed his 19-piece ensemble through two whisper-like pianissimo passages and two top-of-the-lung shout choruses, scoring a rousing ovation.

He then let tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts loose for a brief but beguiling “Sophisticated Lady,” where, over a searing background tapestry, the horn man came up with most-impressive sky-high wailings. A too-long, too-loud, too-fast “Milestones,” where trumpeter Oscar Brashear, along with seven or eight others, soloed with awesome power, closed the set.

Williamson, an unabashed bopper, was just shy of top form in his second set. Backed subtly by bassist Art Davis and drummer Carl Burnett, he played “Somebody Loves Me,” investigating the tune’s harmonies like a careful detective, and “Woody ‘n’ You,” where he dealt out quickly turning lines that revealed his mastery of the bop style. Davis soloed with quiet persuasion, often using melody notes as his starting-off points.

The Morgan-McPherson band was heat personified, with both leaders delivering fluid, sweeping lines at break-neck tempos on “I’ll Remember April” and “The Theme.” On the former, after lengthy solos from both and pianist Mathews, the horn men traded 16-then 8-bar phrases and the difference in their styles was clear. While both can play any idea that comes to mind, Morgan’s sound is sweeter and his approach more impressionistic (he likes smearing his notes like a painter), while McPherson’s tone has a raw edge to it, and his lines reek happily of the blues. A ballad medley gave a view of the players’ softer sides.

Norsworthy was ecstatic with the turnout. “It came off great,” he exuded. “The response was tremendous.”