TV REVIEW : ‘Jazz Alive’ on Bravo

“Jazz Alive,” airing tonight on the Bravo cable channel at 7 and midnight, was taped in 1983 in Toronto, with an assortment of Canadian and American musicians.

Maynard Ferguson, who opens the show with two numbers backed by the Canadian house band self-consciously reading its parts, plays high, wide and not very handsome. A bravura expert, he has rarely shown much class as an improvising musician and seems even less inspired nowadays.

Also past his prime was the great Teddy Wilson, a seminal pianist of the 1930s, seen here three years before his death, going rather sadly through the motions of what was once an excitingly fresh style.

The late Woody Herman, too, is below optimum form as he takes the house band through two of his charts; but Moe Koffman, the principal sideman, redeems this segment with his alto sax and piccolo solos, as well as in his flute specialty on “Jitterbug Waltz.” He has never quite received his just desserts outside Canada.

Waving the Canadian flag even more proudly are the vibraphonist Peter Appleyard, whose blues solo digs deep into the roots, and a surprisingly compelling “Lush Life” sung by Cecile Furness. The latter, a tall and striking Afro-Canadian, assuredly deserves south-of-the-Northern-border exposure.

Sharing the vocal honors, Mel Torme is his perennial indomitable self on a “Ridin’ High/Shootin’ High” medley followed by a blues, “Sent for You Yesterday,” in which he trades ad libs with Koffman.

The finale finds Torme on drums with the band as the entire cast gathers on stage for Woody Herman’s “Apple Honey.” Cecile Furness, in an attempt at scatting, seems a little out of her territory here. Over all, though, it’s an amiable ending to a mildly satisfying convocation.