JAZZ REVIEW : International Sounds at Two-Day Party at Biltmore

The third annual International Jazz Party, held Saturday and Sunday at the Biltmore’s Grand Avenue Bar, followed the pattern of its predecessors. Japanese musicians alternated with Americans and occasionally played alongside them.

Eiji Kitamura, the clarinet virtuoso, was again the principal visitor, playing mostly traditional swing-era songs. His technique seemingly improved with age, he conjured up a head of steamy excitement with a solo of Benny Goodman-like virtuosity on “The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise.”

Top honors Saturday went to Bruce Foreman, a guitarist from San Francisco graced with phenomenal fluency, who teamed with the more conventional but empathetic Yoshiaki Miyanou. Their guitar duets brought out the best in both players.

Foreman appeared again Sunday in a pleasant collaboration with tenor sax-player Scott Hamilton. They were followed by an all-Japanese group with agreeable but derivative piano by Kotaro Tsukuhara, drummer Sabao Watanabe and bassist Sammy Asami.

The Sunday evening session came to a roaring climax with Bill Berry’s band. With Berry conducting, playing an occasional cornet solo and contributing a colorfully textured original, the band succeeded in areas tackled less successfully last week by the Lincoln Center Orchestra.

Both bands leaned heavily on Ellington material, but Berry’s musicians have a more natural feeling for it. Only in the closing “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue” did they fall momentarily short, when Scott Hamilton’s tenor sax failed to generate the kind of passion created last week by Joshua Redman with the New York ensemble.

Almost everyone in the Berry band had significant spotlight time, most notably such regulars as Marshal Royal, Ross Tompkins, Snooky Young and Frank Capp. Other members included Supersax singers Ernie Andrews and Polly Podewell, pianist Gerry Wiggins, bassist John Clayton and drummer Gregg Field.