Jazz Review : Bowl ‘Guitar Greats’ Invoke Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery

The principal players were not all on stage for Wednesday night’s “Guitar Greats” concert at the Hollywood Bowl. Mundell Lowe, Lee Ritenour and George Benson did the performing, but the images and the echoes of Joe Pass and Wes Montgomery were equally present.

Lowe appeared in place of Pass, who died after the program was scheduled. It was an appropriate replacement. Lowe’s straight- ahead playing clearly springs from the same origins as Pass’ benchmark jazz style. On standards such as “Body and Soul,” “Alone Together” and a laid-back 3/4 version of “The Way You Look Tonight” (with a stellar piano solo from Bill Cunliffe), Lowe kept the flame of mainstream jazz guitar burning brightly.

Ritenour and Benson had Montgomery on their minds. Using octave passages--a Montgomery trademark--with great profusion, Ritenour’s readings of “Boss City,” “Goin’ On to Detroit” and his own “Wes Bound” managed to recall Montgomery without sacrificing Ritenour’s own identity. Yet, good as he was, Ritenour too often seemed to step back from the edge of more extended creativity in favor of easy riffing. One suspects he could be a much better player if he put aside technique and style, and allowed the music to come through on its own terms. Saxophonist Ernie Watts and drummer Harvey Mason provided powerful support, with Watts generating some startlingly avant-garde honks and squeals.

Benson was similarly reliant upon the familiar Montgomery octave-method. But he also--for at least a few tunes--played with a fire and fury rarely heard since he became a pop star. His solo on “Caravan,” for example, revealed that he has both the technical capacity and the innovative imagination to be an important force in contemporary jazz. But most of the balance of his set was devoted to brief, easy-rocking renditions of the soul-based music he has concentrated on since the late ‘70s.