Summer Splash III : Looking For Hot Tips? Well, We Recommend . . . : Jazz

A common thread running through most of the summer’s major events is big band jazz, now undergoing a major renaissance.

Although Stan Kenton’s will strictly forbade the formation of a Kenton ghost band, scores of players, composers and singers who were associated with him will gather Thursday through next Sunday at the Hyatt Newporter for “Back-to-Balboa,” involving 15 concerts, along with panel discussions and film screenings. (The Kenton band made its debut at the Balboa Ballroom on Memorial Day, 1941.)

Unlike Kenton, Duke Ellington left his band alive and thriving. Under Mercer Ellington, it will be heard June 15 at the Playboy Festival at Hollywood Bowl. Overlapping with the Playboy event is the annual Ellington Convention, June 13-16 at the Pacifica Hotel. This too has nostalgic overtones, with a retrospective of Duke’s famous musical show, “Jump for Joy,” including Herb Jeffries, who sang in the original show 50 years ago. The Bill Berry big band will be on hand, along with numerous Ellington authorities expounding on the maestro’s unique role in the history of the art form.

The Toshiko Akiyoshi Orchestra, featuring Lew Tabackin, will offer a more contemporary view of the orchestral scene June 16 at the Hollywood Bowl, when Playboy will also present Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nation Orchestra.

A series of big-band nights, Mondays at the Blossom Room of the Roosevelt Hotel, will offer a virtual cross-section of big band jazz styles: Bill Berry (July 1); Capp/Pierce Juggernaut (July 8); Bob Florence (July 22); Ann Patterson’s brilliant, all-female Maiden Voyage (July 29); Gerald Wilson (Aug. 5); Bill Holman (Aug. 12), and the forward-looking Clayton/Hamilton ensemble (Aug. 19).

Other big-band sounds, all at the Hollywood Bowl: the Basie, Artie Shaw and Harry James bands on July 31, and the West Coast premiere of Charles Mingus’ “Epitaph,” an ambitious work with Gunther Schuller conducting a 30-piece ensemble Aug. 28.