JAZZ REVIEW : A Salute to Society Winners

The Los Angeles Jazz Society rounded out its first decade Sunday with a three-part celebration at the L.A. Hilton Hotel: a brunch with music, an awards ceremony and a concert.

The last segment of the seven-hour event was by far the most successful. It included a jam session spearheaded by Al Aarons on trumpet and fluegelhorn and Bob Cooper on tenor sax, with a freewheeling accompaniment by guitarist John Collins and pianist Gerald Wiggins among others.

The Cunninghams, the dynamic vocal duo, breezed their blues-tinged way through “Centerpiece,” an early composition by Harry (Sweets) Edison, this year’s Jazz Tribute Award winner. Two other winners, pianist-singer Joyce Collins (Educator of the Year) and Bill Henderson (Vocalist of the Year) were reunited to record some of their collaborations of the 1970s. His version of “My Funny Valentine,” sung while she counter-punched with “The Gentleman Is a Dope,” still makes delightfully dovetailed sense.

Teri Merrill-Aarons, the founder and president of the L.A. Jazz Society, was herself the recipient of an award, offered by a group of friends who have watched her build the organization from scratch over a long and often difficult decade. The local jazz community owes much to her many initiatives.

Other awards were given to Gerald Wilson as composer, saxophonist Teddy Edwards (Lifetime Achievement) and 21-year-old Katisse Buckingham, winner of the Shelly Manne Memorial Fund New Talent Award. Buckingham displayed his expertise on soprano, alto and tenor saxes, on two originals and two standards. Long on chops though perhaps still a little short on soul, he is a promising youth in the tradition of the previous winners.

The day started in low gear. Brunch music was supplied in the restaurant by a deliberately antiquated quartet (banjo, tuba, clarinet and drums). The opening act in the ballroom where the main action took place was an overlong, overloud set by a Latin jazz group led by Rudy Regalado, whose slogan, “the cool sounds,” was belied by the percussion-heavy arrangements. Happily, when he yielded the floor to Buckingham, a cooling trend promptly developed.