POP MUSIC REVIEW : Yes, Jazz <i> Is</i> Forever : Community: Annual festival at inner-city park in San Diego provides good music and good feelings for a nominal charge.

It was a gigantic backyard party, and in the end, saxophonist Najee played it as loose as a neighborhood jam. As the sun headed for the horizon and the intoxicating aroma of many barbecues sizzling in unison wafted over the sea of people, Najee parted the crowd with his sax, strolling among his many admirers to bring last Saturday’s Jazz Iz Forever to its rousing climax.

In its fifth year, the music festival at Dennis V. Allen Park in the Gateway Business Center on Market Street, a few miles east of downtown San Diego, has become a mature and polished gem on the city’s cultural scene. Corporate sponsorship was down, so the event’s organizers had to charge admission for the first time, but it was still a great deal snapped up by an estimated 15,000 to 20,000. Many pitched party tents and canopies, set up lawn chairs and settled in for the day.

Where else could you hear Papa John Creach, Najee and a host of top local and regional bands, all for a five spot?

Jazz Iz Forever offered a walloping 10 hours of music, as well as booths dispensing all manner of exotic, delicious food; information from assorted community organizations; books; T-shirts, and arts items celebrating the community’s African-American heritage.

The festival opened with a morning set by the young but energetic X Revolution Jazz Band, and by the time headliner Najee had finished and some folks were headed for their cars, the reggae group Roughneck Posse was still going strong.

The day was full of pleasant surprises. Devon Evans, a former Wailer (as in Bob Marley) turned up in a new percussion ensemble called Afrobean, fronted by San Diego poet Tony Ackee. San Diego fluegelhorn player Bruce Cameron turned in a burning guest performance with trombonist/vocalist Aubrey Fay’s band. And Joyfull Noize, a five-member San Francisco Bay Area a cappella group came through with a polished, rousing gospel-inspired performance.

Most pleasing of all, though, was that the day’s two top acts, Najee and Creach, were 10 times as exciting live as they are on their new recordings.

Najee is an immensely popular pop-jazz saxophonist who can deliver light, romantic melodies that make his music an FM-radio favorite, and still tell meaningful emotional stories with complex, thoughtful improvisations.

His new release, “Just an Illusion,” emphasizes the light and romantic, with appropriate guest vocalists such as Jeffrey Osborne and Freddie Jackson. In concert with a road band, however, Najee’s music was transformed into a wild, full-blown affair that ran the stylistic gamut from R&B; and jazz to funk and even heavy metal.

The set featured a cross-section of material from “Najee’s Theme,” his debut 1986 solo release, and three subsequent solo recordings. Najee plays tenor, alto and soprano saxes and flute, but Saturday, his best moments came on soprano.

Throughout the set, guitarist Ron Lawrence was simply amazing, crossing between fluid electric jazz lines and searing metal fragments straight out of Van Halen or Living Colour as the six-piece group, powered by drummer Abe Fogle and bassist Artie Reynolds, blasted steadily onward and liquid-smooth strands of notes poured from Najee’s horns.

Vocalist Yvette Cason shared the spotlight with Najee on the set’s closing number, “I’ll Be Good to You,” working the crowd into a frenzy as she and the saxophonist dueled it out face-to-face in one of the most suggestive pseudo-sexual musical encounters you’ll ever see or hear.

But more was in store. Najee and his group came back for an encore, and with the crowd still on its feet, played “Bet You Don’t Know What’s Going On” from “Najee’s Theme,” which featured the saxophonist’s friendly stroll through the audience. He shook hands, melted the hearts of women with his smiles, and carried someone’s baby girl back up to the stage for the song’s climax.

At 75, violinist Creach isn’t nimble enough to hop from the stage and bounce through the audience, but his playing hasn’t lost any of its zing. His new release, “Papa Blues,” on which he is joined by the Bernie Pearl Blues Band, is a major event, but not necessarily for the music, which is only OK; it’s the first new recording by Creach since the late 1970s.

On “Papa Blues,” it sounds as if Creach and the band couldn’t get warmed up in a cold studio setting. At Jazz Iz Forever, though, where Creach made eye contact with juking, jiving fans, Pearl’s band and Creach were electrifying.

Pearl kicked off the set with some down-and-dirty slide guitar the likes of which never made it to “Papa’s Blues,” and Creach joined the group after two songs, his bow biting off big hunks of violin sound that soared high over the band’s solid backbeat.

Unlike “Papa Blues,” an all-blues collection, Creach mixed blues with some of his favorites on Saturday. “Georgia on My Mind” was especially pleasing, as Creach displayed his knack for effectively re-inventing the classics.

Between Creach and Najee came Joyfull Noize’s rousing set, which stirred up the audience like a good gospel choir. The audience gladly accepted Joyfull Noize’s uplifting, clean-living message, couched as it was behind inventive a cappella combinations that married vocal percussive sounds reminiscent of Bobby McFerrin with tight harmonies that covered the full range of the human voice.

Earlier in the day, several San Diego bands performed shorter sets, with mixed results. While there was much raw talent on display, the gap between these upwardly aspiring groups and the polish and sophistication of Najee’s was wide.

Trombonist/vocalist Aubrey Fay and his group suffered from a lack of original material, turning in competent, occasionally excellent versions of War’s “The World Is a Ghetto,” the old standard “Tobacco Road,” Billy Paul’s “Me and Mrs. Jones” and Herbie Hancock’s “Chameleon.” Reel to Real drummer Roger Friend sat in, delivering a tight, imaginative performance.

Reel to Real played some new songs and music from its self-produced recording, “Through That Door.” Led by percussionist/vocalist Michael Kelleher and saxman Steve Kocherhans, Reel to Real is a talented band, but its music is so tightly scripted that there is little room left for spontaneity.

B Natural, the San Diego-based jazz/R&B; group fronted by vocalist Peggy Dodson, is still searching for a direction to balance Dodson’s singing with Mindy Abair’s sax.

Throughout the event, the sound was excellent, thanks to some massive booster speakers placed in the middle of the park. Sound production manager Greg Herreman was on stage all day to make subtle adjustments to the mix and organize equipment changes between bands.

For producer Sylvia M’Lafi Thompson, the day was a triumph of will over recession. The $5 admission price didn’t hamper attendance, and ticket sales poured some much-needed money into the coffers of 21 Harlem, the organization Thompson founded 2 1/2 years ago to produce Jazz Iz Forever and other community events.

The festival’s only drawback was a shortage of parking that caused several potential festival-goers to keep driving. Thompson hopes to expand Jazz Iz Forever to two days next year, and may institute a shuttle bus system to ease the parking crunch.

Najee’s hand-shaking, baby-hoisting foray from the stage near the end of the day seemed to sum up the importance of Jazz Iz Forever. Joy showed in the faces of the audience, creating an intense feeling of togetherness.