WEEKEND REVIEWS : Music & Pop : An Inspired Blend From McFerrin, Friends

On Saturday night at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the walls of concert hall formality came crumbling down, like a rum-laced Christmas cookie. And the crowd went wild. Blame it on the conductor and his plain, liberating disregard for fussy starched-shirted traditions.

Gymnastic jazz vocalist and irrepressible spirit Bobby McFerrin returned to lead the Philharmonic, as he did last summer at the Hollywood Bowl, in a special non-subscription concert. Officially, the fare was “The Nutcracker Suite” and Beethoven’s 7th Symphony.

McFerrin did a creditable job with a baton--which he stuffs behind his ear in his dreadlocks when not in use. But it was what happened in the unofficial sections of the concert that made it a special and engagingly loony night at the symphony.

While the orchestra gave “The Nutcracker” cavalier polish, suitable for the season, McFerrin, the maestro as emcee, made wisecracks between sections and invited the audience on a sing-along march.

After dismissing the orchestra, McFerrin took the stage for a solo performance. He is music’s Robin Williams, a bubbling cultural caldron of free-floating ideas and quotations. Deep, instinctive musicality--deftly woven bass lines, register-leaping melodic fragments and improvisational flourishes--blended with spontaneity and gonzo humor. Following a deceptively lovely reading of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” McFerrin dazzled with a non-linear medley of songs and sound bites from “The Wizard of Oz.”

For the second half, McFerrin changed his white shirt for black and his stand-up persona for a more sober one, as he addressed the rhythmically-machined contours of Beethoven’s 7th. For McFerrin, the ensemble served up textural clarity and an accent on rhythmic drive, culminating in the exuberant resolve of the finale.

McFerrin closed the concert with a sing-along version of the “Mickey Mouse Club” theme. A little dadaistic naivete never hurts, especially in this season when merriment gets a long leash.