Jazz : Few Surprises at Biltmore Bar Party

The Biltmore’s Grand Avenue Bar, deserted by many jazz fans since its change of policy two months ago, came back to life briefly over the weekend when Bill and Betty Berry, with Satoru and Yoriko Oda, presented an international jazz party featuring American musicians with a sprinkling of visitors from Tokyo.

The Japanese performers, all of whom were heard at the Friday-evening session, could hardly have represented the best their country has to offer. Arguably the most impressive, and the youngest, was Seiji Okamura, a 35-year-old guitarist whose fleet, well-constructed lines owed more to Charlie Parker than to Charlie Christian.

During the same set, Eiji Kitamura, familiar through many visits to U.S. jazz festivals, played his facile, familiar brand of old-school clarinet, with only an occasional hint of his awareness that life no longer ends with Benny Goodman.

Bison Katayama on drums teamed competently with the superlative bassist John Heard and the party’s guest of honor, Hank Jones, whose piano trio set was one of the evening’s two hits. The other was a long, spectacular trombone solo by Bill Watrous on a tune he mockingly retitled “When Your Liver Has Gone.”

Terry Mishushima, though she has been singing professionally for 30 years, scarcely reached the level of an American high school band vocalist. The other singer, Ayako Hosokawa, has spent some years in this country and was far more original, despite a repertoire that included “Mack the Knife.”

Satoru Oda on tenor sax displayed little originality in conception or execution. His co-producer, Bill Berry, was in typically spirited form, notably in a muted cornet solo on “Autumn Leaves.”

The problem with the session was its paucity of surprises, either in the over-familiar selections or in the presentation. Significantly, when Hank Jones played his brother Thad’s exquisite melody “A Child Is Born,” it was a relief to be brought into the second half of the 20th Century.