JAZZ REVIEW : Hampton Plays Classics at Disneyland

It is an odd irony that a perennial court of last resort for the big bands, allegedly senior citizens’ sounds, is a place designed for preteens: Disneyland, where Lionel Hampton and his 16 colleagues are this week’s incumbents at the Plaza Gardens.

How does this 79-year-old vibraphone virtuoso cater to a crowd that may have some members close to him in age and others who could be his great-grandchildren? The challenge is not simple, nor did it seem to be met for the first few tunes Monday night, with the orchestra making its way reservedly through conventional standard songs and the maestro himself in a subdued mood. Even Hampton’s most durable ballad, “Midnight Sun,” was a trifle perfunctory.

Everyone woke up conspicuously with a Wade Marcus original, “Invincible,” with the upright bassist switching to electric, the second percussionist backing up the regular drummer and a tuba reinforcing the brass team. Although this could have been the most danceable tune of the set, the listeners, except for a couple of 3-year-olds cavorting up front, stopped their movements and formed a long line in front of the bandstand absorbing these invigorating sounds.

Hampton’s track record for developing major talent may have slowed a little, but he still produces the occasional promising newcomer. And the current Hampton reed section is especially well equipped to display the joys of sax. Doug Miller was doubly effective as tenor saxophonist and arranger, on “It’s You or No One,” “Speak Low” and his own “Sweet Tooth,” flavored with early be-bop overtones. The other tenor star, Jerry Weldon, cooked cogently in his own arrangement of “Jeannine.”

No Hampton convocation is complete without “Flyin’ Home,” ready to round out its first half-century but now equipped with a new routine in which each of the four trumpeters has a turn at bat.

By the end of the second set this invincible veteran, his enthusiasm whetted by the sounds around him, had brought his own unquenched vigor up to par.

The band plays nightly through Saturday, with sets begining at 7, 8, 9:35 and 10:30.