JAZZ REVIEW : Missing the Target : Except for His Brother’s Playing, Cannonball Tribute Is Wide of the Mark

It sounded like a great idea: a “Salute to Cannonball Adderley” Saturday night as part of the “Sneak Preview” season at the new Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach.

But, as Don Marquis once suggested, an idea “isn’t responsible for the people who believe in it,” and the execution of the Cannonball salute unfortunately fell well short of its aspirations.

Perhaps predictably, the most successful part of the evening was provided by cornetist Nat Adderley’s whimsical reminiscences about his late saxophonist brother, and by the superlative playing of his own current quintet.

Restricted to a relatively brief set by a series of technical glitches (admirably covered up by KLON deejay Chuck Niles’ impromptu joking), the Adderley Quintet made the most of a few jazz lines and the standard, “Autumn Leaves.”

Both Adderley and alto saxophonist Vincent Herring (whose style blends a Cannonball-like articulation with a more contemporary rhythm flow) peaked on a grooving Hank Mobley melody, “This I Dig Of You.” But the highlight of the set, in part because of its powerful association with the Adderley Brothers’ groups of the ‘60s, was the soul-jazz classic “Work Song.”

*

The second half of the bill, which featured the International Assn. of Jazz Appreciation’s All-Star Big Band, left far more to be desired.

A promised compositional tribute to Cannonball Adderley by Cecil Bridgewater was so poorly rehearsed, and so inaccurately played that its carefully crafted dissonances and moving inner voices were almost impossible to discern.

When the Nat Adderley Quintet also came on stage, the large ensemble--with no noticeable written music to play--was left to generate some on-the-spot, spontaneous “head arrangements.”

Random alto saxophone solos by Herring, Antonio Hart and Jeff Clayton were apparently intended to reflect the Cannonball salute, although Clayton very nearly stole the show with a blistering, blues-drenched paraphrase of a famous solo--not by Cannonball, but by Charlie Parker.

Tenor saxophonist and singer Stephen Wayne started the evening with a pleasant--if occasionally uncertain--group of such jazz works as “Maiden Voyage” and “Moody’s Mood For Love.”

The Cannonball Salute was one of a number of programs at the Carpenter Center leading up to the grand opening in October. The trial run is a wise strategy, since both audio and visual presentation will have to improve dramatically if this otherwise-attractive arena is going to become a major performing-arts venue.