Ray Charles, Ruth Brown Head Diverse Slate for Playboy Festival

A diverse array of artists from singer Ray Charles and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis to funk horn band Tower of Power and R&B; pioneer Ruth Brown head the lineup for the Playboy Jazz Festival June 15-16 at the Hollywood Bowl.

The schedule, announced at a press conference last week at the Playboy Mansion in Holmby Hills, also includes a number of free events and a June 14 screening of rare jazz films from the Mark Cantor archives at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Beverly Hills.

The June 15 schedule includes singers Charles and Dianne Reeves; the jazz/fusion band Spyro Gyra with saxophonist Jay Beckenstein; the Duke Ellington Orchestra directed by Mercer Ellington; drum maestro Elvin Jones; Bill Cosby & Friends with gospel singer Mavis Staples, saxophonist Jimmy Heath and pianist Mulgrew Miller; the Harper Bros., with guest organist Jimmy McGriff; trumpeter Hugh Masekela and singer Miriam Makeba; the Rebirth Jazz Band, and the winning vocal act from the Fullerton College Jazz Festival.

On tap for June 16 are Brown; Tower of Power; Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nations Orchestra; the Neville Brothers; guitarist John McLaughlin’s trio; Toshiko Akiyoshi’s Jazz Orchestra with Lew Tabackin; trumpeter Arturo Sandoval; banjoist Bela Fleck and the Flecktones; the Jazz Futures with trumpeter Roy Hargrove, pianist Benny Green, altoist Tony Hart, guitarist Mark Whitfield and others, and the winner of the Hennessy Cognac Jazz Search.

Free events preceding the festival include a May 5 concert with Carl Anderson, Fattburger and Rudy Regalado at L.A. Valley College; a May 26 cruise around the L.A. Harbor with Gerald Wilson’s Orchestra of the ‘90s and drummer Alphonse Mouzon.

Information: (213) 450-9040.