JAZZ REVIEW : A Guitar Showcase at Ambassador

The group billed as Great Guitarists, presented Wednesday at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, seems to have floating personnel. One local paper heralding the event showed Charlie Byrd and Barney Kessel alongside Herb Ellis, but identified Ellis as Tal Farlow. As it turned out, neither Ellis nor Farlow took part; Bucky Pizzarelli played the role of the third man.

Almost any three guitarists of this caliber would have worked out well. The program was carefully split up to give everyone a single showcase: Along with several solo numbers, there were guitar trio pieces and quintet items for which Monty Budwig’s dependable bass and Ralph Penland’s discreet drums were added.

Although all three guitars were amplified, there were distinct contrasts in the instruments used and the respective timbres. Byrd, though a capable jazz soloist, seemed most at ease when he played a medley of Brazilian songs by Antonio Carlos Jobim, a reminder that it was he who virtually introduced bossa nova to the American public 27 years ago.

Pizzarelli’s sound, slightly heavier than Byrd’s, made nimble use of chords on his ballad interlude. “Passion Flower,” a lovely Billy Strayhorn song, cried out for an arco (bowed) bass accompaniment, but Budwig just kept on plucking.

Byrd offered a verbal tribute to Charlie Christian, the Oklahoma-bred genius who inspired everyone in his wake. Three Christian originals provided the evening’s most inspired moments. Kessel (who is leading his own trio at St. Mark’s in Venice tonight and Saturday) was all but airborne in his full-toned solo flights on “Benny’s Bugle,” “Airmail Special” and “Seven Come Eleven.” What is it about these Oklahomans that enables them to swing with such effortless ease?