Jazz Reviews : Fireworks at Bowl, but None on Stage

Never mind the music--the fireworks were great.

That, at least, was the view of one curmudgeonly critic to whom Gene Evans, a pyrotechnics master who designed the final 10 spectacular minutes Saturday at the Hollywood Bowl, was the one outstanding artist of the evening.

During his show, many of the colorful explosions were synchronized to the beats of the bar in a Sousa march medley by the orchestra. It was compensation enough for almost two hours of dreary effusions by the Dukes of Dixieland and the Philharmonic conducted by Erich Kunzel--separately and, alas, together.

If ever two groups belong apart they would be a loose, uninhibited improvising Dixieland band and a stiff, orchestrated symphony ensemble dripping with strings. At the worst moments, and they were frequent, it was like tuning in two radio stations at once.

The present Dukes bear little resemblance to the 1950s band that included the Assunto family from Louisiana: Fred, Frank, and their father, Papa Jac, all long dead. The name was acquired by a new group. These are trained musicians, two with college degrees and one a well known New Orleans jazz historian, but with the orchestra running interference (and with Kunzel just standing there looking awkward much of the time) it was hard to detect any significant level of musicianship.

Only the leader, trombonist Harry Watters, had anything of value to say in his solos. The clarinetist Mike Waddell and trumpeter Jim Donovan do not seem to have reached maturity; even such trite-and-true material as “The Entertainer” and “Clarinet Marmalade” were too much for them to handle.

The works played separately by the orchestra were as forgettable as the Dukes’ selections were predictable. It would take a genius to make something fresh out of a Stephen Foster medley, and genius was not at work here. Only the Henry Mancini piece, “Ohio River Boat,” provided surcease, with harmony that was beyond Foster’s wildest dreams.

How, though, to argue with success? This show drew 17,598 on Friday and upped the ante to 17,910 Saturday.