JAZZ REVIEW : Big Blowout at Biltmore on Red Callender’s Birthday

The Biltmore’s Grand Avenue Bar has been gaining a reputation for its intermittent parties honoring the respected jazz gentry of the Southland. On Tuesday, the occasion was a celebration of Red Callender’s birthday, an event that could have filled a dozen rooms with the veteran bassist’s admirers and friends.

Starting with a live broadcast on KKJZ with his quartet, Callender played an agreeable second set, blew out 72 candles on his birthday cake, and still had enough breath to switch to the tuba for his next performance.

Up to that point, the music had been relatively conventional, with Gerald Wiggins delivering his typically impeccable, hard-swinging piano solos, and Paul Humphrey offering characteristically supportive but never intrusive drumming. James Newton, 35 years Callender’s junior and his occasional colleague in recent years, added his flute here and there.

It was during the brief tuba interlude that the music came most fully alive. Callender, long a master of the brass bass horn, brought its sonorous depth to “Sophisticated Lady” and “In A Sentimental Mood” while one of his students, Leslie Baker, displayed her very serviceable chops at the bass.

Throughout the evening, Callender reminded us in both rhythm and solo functions that he is a vital part of this city’s jazz history--and, not least, the man who taught Charles Mingus to play the bass.