Jazz Reviews : Jimmy Smith Revels in the Blues at Blue Note Gala

Jimmy Smith saved the best for last at the Mild Seven Lights 50th Anniversary Blue Note Celebration, held on a very sunny Sunday at the John Anson Ford Theatre in Hollywood.

Smith, who first recorded his bluesy, at times campy, style for the noted label in the early ‘50s, provided the audience with the kind of straightforward, blues-drenched numbers that Blue Note was renowned for. These tunes cooked mightily from Bar 1 and the three-quarters-full house responded enthusiastically to the organist and his cohorts: guitarist Kenny Burrell, saxophonist Junior Cook, bassist Larry Gales and drummer Frank Wilson.

The sultry “Mood Indigo” was the set’s high point. Here Burrell unleashed his pure sound and immaculate execution in soloing with single, repeated notes, long, swinging lines and brimming-with-color chordal figures. Cook, wailing swaggeringly, and Smith also delivered their share of percolating improvisations.

Tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, the scheduled opening act, failed to show (the reason given was that he missed his plane) and so his assigned back-up trio--pianist Billy Childs, bassist Tony Dumas and drummer Ralph Penland--took over.

Since the three were once a working unit, their impromptu set had a high degree of cohesion as they rendered such tunes as Cedar Walton’s “Bolivia” and Monk’s “ ‘Round Midnight” with elan. On the latter, Childs, a piano giant in blossom, shifted dynamically between sotto-voce chords, tinkling cocktail lines and dancing parallel octaves during his solo. As well as the group played, one had to wonder what this youthful trio had to do with Blue Note Records.

Further consternation was provided by the touted Blue Note All-Stars, who played an unrehearsed set that went from the musical to the mundane. Two gleaming unaccompanied numbers by pianist Hank Jones preceded a blues, another “ ‘Round Midnight,” a spry bass solo by Reggie Workman on “Yesterdays,” and “The Song is You.” Though drummer Art Taylor crackled throughout and tenorman Clifford Jordan played with pizazz, the band, which also included trumpeter Dizzy Reece and trombonist Julian Priester, never caught fire.

The Blue Note Celebration series concludes Sunday with Art Blakey, Horace Silver, and a jam session with Freddie Hubbard, Barry Harris, et al.