POP MUSIC REVIEW : ‘Blues Summit’ Has Few Peaks : The concert headlined by B.B. King and Buddy Guy at the Greek Theatre is less about feeling than it is about guitar virtuosity. The tour continues in Irvine tonight.

The “Blues Summit ‘93” bill headlined by B.B. King and Buddy Guy at the Greek Theatre Thursday--and coming to Irvine Meadows this evening--showed how much the blues has been redefined as guitar virtuosity. To paraphrase some old Little Walter lyrics, blues with a feeling wasn’t much on display during the five-hour performance.

Certainly it didn’t require a purist view of the blues to wonder what Eric Johnson was doing on the bill. All flying fingers and foot-pedals, Johnson epitomized the blues as an abstract truth learned from listening to records more than from life itself.

Luckily, B.B. King sat down for the second half of his own 75-minute set. I say luckily because that signaled a lengthy run-through of his earliest hits, starting with a “3 O’Clock Blues”/”It’s Your Own Fault, Baby”/”Sweet Little Angel” medley and closing the show with a “Rock Me, Baby”/”How Blue Can You Get”/”Thrill Is Gone” finale.

But the appeal wasn’t nostalgia--King was finally able to play with the subtlety, finesse and feeling that had been surprisingly lacking in the first half of his performance, when the arrangements often seemed rushed and the horn parts battled B.B.’s guitar lines instead of complementing them.

When he sat down, the horns left the stage, the tempos slowed and the volume dropped to a level at which King’s strengths were fully displayed. His singing hadn’t lost any of its ability to evoke blues power; nor has his guitar, Lucille, lost the ability to play ever-so-soft and salty-sweet.

King also seemed free then of the show-biz shtick that plagued his set’s first half. The polished sheen is probably the result of constant roadwork, but it was still surprising to see the music largely serving to set up stage high jinks rather than vice versa. It was disconcerting to see someone who has sung and/or written some of the best blues lyrics ever rely so much on bug-eyed mugging to convey the wit and wisdom of the music.

The only other performer to display any emotional connection with his material was guitarist Ali Farka Toure from Mali. Toure, clad in a flowing magenta robe and singing with a regal bearing, led a trio (with guest Ry Cooder) that came up with a radical idea for this bill--play the music without any show-biz trappings.

One piece was straight out of the John Lee Hooker/early Muddy Waters vein, with Cooder on slide. A second, with Cooder on electric mandolin, was upbeat and sounded more Caribbean, with a near-reggae feel (like Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now”).

But that was it. Two songs in 15 minutes played at 5:30 p.m., before maybe 10% of what would ultimately become a full house. Pretty pointless. Why couldn’t Toure have played his music--introducing a different dimension to the blues tradition for the audience--later in the program?

The Alligator All-Stars’ half-hour set could be the menu at some blues-themed restaurant: one Lonnie Brooks boogie, a Junior Wells “Messin’ With the Kid,” one Koko Taylor mixture of Chicago with Memphis soul barbecue sauce and for dessert, a “Wang Dang Doodle” jam with everyone on it.

Buddy Guy was the first performer to progress beyond the appetite-whetting phase, but the newly popular Chicago guitarist hasn’t really cleaned up his bad stage habits. He downplayed the fast and loud showboating that has for years sated guitar junkies at his shows, but only in favor of hamming it up as a “sing along with Buddy” personality.

Guy played on two dynamic levels--very soft and slow (the best music-making) or full tilt, with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. His adept band was built more for muscle than for finesse, although second guitarist Scott Holt did take an outstanding slow solo during “Five Long Years.”

But “Sweet Home Chicago,” “Hoochie-Coochie Man,” “Knock on Wood,” “Mustang Sally” a snippet of “Sunshine of Your Love”--does this set sound like a classic rocker’s idea of the blues/soul hit list or what? Guy did play a snatch of Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child” (now that’s an interesting choice) but then abruptly gave Holt the spotlight for the done-to-death “Red House.”

With his roots in the real Chicago deal and his flair for dealing with its rock branches, Guy has the potential to turn his newly expanded fan base on to an unusually broad range of blues. But he’ll have stop pandering to an adoring audience that blindly accepts anything that calls itself blues.

Ali Farka Toure plays at the San Diego Street Scene Saturday. Joining the Blues Summit ’93 bill at Irvine Meadows will be Gregg Allman, who presumably will play more than the two songs and 15 minutes allotted the man from Mali.

* B.B. King, Gregg Allman, Eric Johnson, Buddy Guy, Koko Taylor, Lonnie Brooks, Junior Wells and others play blues today at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, 8800 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine. Show time: 5 p.m. $17.25 to $32.25. (714) 740-2000 (TicketMaster).