JAZZ REVIEW : Hampton, Redman Quartet Top the Bill at Playboy Fest

The first day of the 16th annual Playboy Jazz Festival followed a pattern that has served producer George Wein well in the past.

You can be sure that the program will open with an amateur band, usually a good excuse for showing up late. This year it was the Roosevelt High School Ensemble, fair on teamwork but weak on solos (aren’t they all?).

You can be no less certain that the mix will include at least two or three pop/funk/contemporary groups, a couple of the currently hot jazz soloists, and a sure-fire crowd pleaser to close out the eight-hour marathon.

Saturday’s show-stopper was the tireless, 85-year-old Lionel Hampton, whose all-star nine-piece group, known as the Golden Men of Jazz, proved themselves more like men of steel, with wills of iron, as he took them through their decades-old paces. He was saluted by unyielding roars from a capacity crowd reluctant to let him go.

Solos by trumpeters Sweets Edison and Pete Candoli, a drum battle with Louie Bellson and Hampton, and Hampton’s warmly affecting vocal on “What a Wonderful World” kept the set luminously alive.

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For those who came to hear some unadulterated, state-of-the-art jazz, the Joshua Redman Quartet stood out. Redman, no less at home before 18,000 fans than when he faces an intimate club audience, resorted a little too often to squeaks and squeals and nether honks, a tendency he should watch; but he’s still the most commanding young tenor sax virtuoso on the scene, and his group includes the phenomenon Brad Mehldau on piano and the always startling bassist Christian McBride.

If any two soloists stood out, they were Mehldau and Henry Johnson. The latter, playing guitar with Ramsey Lewis, had no trouble stealing the spotlight from the leader, whose piano was not helped by the sound system.

Cassandra Wilson, a much-praised singer, has to her credit a diverse repertoire, from very early blues (“Hellhound on My Trail”) to the occasional standard (“Skylark”). She also boasts an unconventional backup group, with violin and harmonica. Singing material from her album “Blue Light Till Dawn,” Wilson at times, if unseen, could be mistaken for a man in the Johnny Mathis range. Her blend of ancient material had an urban-country beat that works well.

Wynton Marsalis had the misfortune of following two pop groups, Earl Klugh’s and Spyro Gyra. An inattentive audience seemed disinterested in his writing, which makes ingenious use of four horns. Playing excerpts from a suite in his recent album, Marsalis didn’t connect until a Dixieland passage brought the fun-oriented listeners to their feet.

Flora Purim, teamed with her percussionist-husband Airto, gave a sadly lackluster performance. The Family Laws offered light entertainment with Hubert and Ronny Laws on flute and tenor sax; their siblings, Debra and Eloise, singing; and a new vocal addition, Ronny’s daughter, Michelle.