Pop Music Reviews : Jazzless Jazz Festival at Bowl

The Hollywood Bowl hosted another largely jazzless jazz festival on Sunday--this one sponsored by JVC rather than Playboy. In the performances of Buddy Guy, Patti Austin, Lou Rawls and Stanley Jordan, jazz took a back seat to blues, R&B;, rock and pop.

The nearly four-hour show was mostly routine, offering few surprises and just a smattering of breathtaking moments. Headliner Guy, the Chicago blues singer and guitarist, was easily the class of the field, though sound problems blunted the impact of his set. Sometimes he sizzled--as on “Feels Like Rain” and “Mustang Sally.” At times, though, he turned pure ham, dipping into his bag of crowd-pleasing, show-biz tricks.

Deep-voiced crooner Rawls offered his typical package of standards and pop-blues tunes, including “Stormy Monday” and “Tobacco Road.” After all these years, he knows how to manipulate an audience--and he pushed all the right buttons. But a lounge-act slickness enveloped most of his songs. All traces of the heartfelt singer of the ‘60s seem to have vanished.

Pop-soul singer Austin’s set was at best passably pleasant. Her problem--especially evident Sunday--has always been a lack of appealing material. As a technician she ranks with the best, but most of her repertoire is flat-out dull.

Guitarist Jordan opened the show with a mostly instrumental set that was partly fun and partly dismaying. He’s a master at dazzling mainstream audiences with his commercial mixture of rock, funk and soft jazz tunes. But it’s irritating to watch Jordan the showman squash Jordan the master technician. He’s a great guitarist mired in musical muck. In his solos there are always some startling, original runs that remind you of what might have been.