Queen Mary Fest Scuttled--Costa Mesa Fills In; Tenor Saxman Doug Webb’s Balancing Act

The Queen is dead; long live the Queen--but under another name.

The Queen Mary Jazz Festival--held on weekends in May for the last four years in the parking lot next to the great liner in Long Beach--will not be held this year, according to its former co-producer, Ira Okun. In its place will be the Southland’s newest jazz festival, the Pacific Jazz Festival, to take place at the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa, May 20-21.

Asked what happened to the Queen Mary Festival, Okun quipped, “I think it sunk.” “Seriously,” Okun went on, “the Queen Mary and (the nearby former Howard Hughes-owned plane) the Spruce Goose were sold by Wrather Port Properties to (Walt) Disney (Co.) last year, and there were a number of changes in policies or attitudes. Disney executives went back and forth on whether to hold the festival, and ultimately decided that they wouldn’t. So I called people at Neiderlander Organization (which owns the Pacific Amphitheatre) and they were very excited about (holding a jazz festival).”

Hiroshima, Lee Ritenour, the Louie Bellson Big Band, Robert Cray, David Benoit and Mongo Santamaria are among those on the contemporary-oriented lineup that Okun has selected for the festival. “I’ve gone with what’s hot and what’s available,” Okun said in explanation. “I tried to have one Latin band each night, and one mainstream band, then the rest mostly contemporary. That’s where it’s at today. We’re in the business to sell tickets. The people in their 20s and 30s, who are the ticket buyers, want to see David Benoit or Ritenour.

“So for a guy who grew up with (saxophonists) Coleman Hawkins and Johnny Hodges, I guess I sold out a little,” he laughed, “but I have to do what’s commercial.”

Tickets for the Pacific Jazz Festival, which runs from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. each day, are priced $33, $27.50 and $19.50, and are available through Teletron, (714) 634-1300.

AROUND TOWN: Tenor saxophonist Doug Webb, one of the more talented up-and-comers on the Los Angeles jazz scene, divides his time these days between knocking out hard-edged solos with trumpeter Sal Marquez’s mainstream-minded Birdland Revisited and delivering cooler statements with bassist Brian Bromberg’s distinctive jazz/fusion band. He says he likes the balance this musical life style offers.

“Sal’s gig, which I’ve worked for about 2 1/2 years, is a fun, blowing thing,” says Webb, 28, who lives in Huntington Beach with his wife, Denise, and their 21-month old son, Ryan. “We do a lot of Charlie Parker tunes, and since Bird was one of my main inspirations, I really enjoy that.”

Webb says that one advantage of playing with Marquez--who works Alfonse’s in North Hollywood tonight and Vine Street Bar & Grill in Hollywood on Monday--is that he’s gotten to play with “some of the best rhythm section players around.” “The regular band is (pianist) Frank Strazzeri, (bassist) Tony Dumas and drummer (Ralph Penland),” he says, “but pianists like Kenny Kirkland and Joe Sample, bassists Frank De la Rosa and drummers Dick Berk and Tom Brechtlien sometimes play.”

The saxophonist was thrilled to work with Sample, one of the co-founders of the Crusaders and a pianist perhaps better known for his easy funk style than his capacity for swinging. “I was amazed at how great Joe sounded,” says Webb. “He swung, he was bluesy without being obviously so, and his time feel felt a lot like (piano giant) Wynton Kelly.”

Webb says that Bromberg, with whom he’s played for two years and works with Saturday at Bon Appetit in Westwood, “is a real innovator. He does things with that bass that nobody else does. Plus his music is getting stronger and more melodic. It’s also a fun band, sort of a blowing gig in a pop/jazz/fusion format.”

A native of the Southland who graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Webb was influenced by men such as John Coltrane--”He was just exciting everything had so many nuances, and he played with such an incredible range of emotion”--Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Dave Liebman and Parker. “He was such a natural player: there wasn’t a thought involved, he could just play.”

Music suits Webb, who looks forward to making both a straight-ahead and contemporary record in the near future. “I wouldn’t trade my life with anybody,” he says. “I’d just like to do more practicing, so I could be a little more consistent. But still it’s good to know I’m growing.”

**** 1963’s “Sidewinder” (Blue Note CD) was a big hit, in jazz terms, for trumpet great Lee Morgan, who was just 34 when felled by a lover’s bullet in a N.Y.C. jazz spot in 1972. The date has an overall bluesy flavor--the title track plus “Gary’s Notebook” and “Boy, What a Night” are all succulent blues variants, while “Hocus-Pocus” is a disguised “Mean to Me.” Morgan, who crackles consistently, tenorman Joe Henderson and pianist Barry Harris light this one up. . . . *** “N.Y.C.” (Intuition) finds Manhattan-based Steps Ahead treading its familiar edgy, contemporary turf. Included are “Well, In That Case,” a pulsing, anthem-like number, the loping “Senegal Calling” and “Charanga,” an evocative contemporary ballad where Saxman Bendik delivers lonesome cries over a slowly-moving rhythmic tableau.

Recordings are graded on a five-star system. Five stars ( **** ) means a definite must for a jazz library; one star ( * ) means don’t bother.