Playboy Festival Lineup Is Virtually Pop-Free

The Playboy Jazz Festival on Thursday announced its lineup for the 20th annual event, presenting what promises to be a first-rate program that makes virtually no concession to pop music and that stretches effectively across the entire range of jazz in the ‘90s.

Key acts in the festival, which takes place at the Hollywood Bowl on the weekend of June 13 and 14, include trumpeter-composer Wynton Marsalis, singers Al Jarreau and Dee Dee Bridgewater, the Cuban band Los Van Van and the all-star contemporary ensemble Fourplay.

Bill Cosby returns as master of ceremonies for his 18th year with the festival. Radio station KLON-FM (88.1) will once again broadcast the festival on a delayed basis in the summer.

The lineup legitimately allows Playboy to refer to its annual celebration this year as a “Jazz Festival,” a title that has been somewhat diluted in recent years. It is one of the most consistently fascinating, consistently true-to-jazz lineups in recent memory.

“Putting together the Playboy Jazz Festival lineup is both a labor of love and, sometimes, a labor of frustration,” says Playboy Jazz Festival President Dick Rosenzweig. “Each year, we try to bring together a roster of outstanding artists who will represent the best of the several jazz genres.”

Marsalis interrupts his busy schedule as director of the Jazz at Lincoln Center program to perform with his septet on the June 13 bill. The appearance will be one of only four that he will make this year with the revived ensemble, and represents a dramatic shift of emphasis from his recent involvement with classical music, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and his Pulitzer Prize-winning jazz oratorio “Blood on the Fields.”

The perennially entertaining Jarreau--a five-time Grammy winner--also appears on Saturday, buoyed by the success of his latest release, “The Best of Al Jarreau.” And Bridgewater, who performs on June 14, is coming off a highly successful tour supporting her current album, “Dear Ella,” a tribute to the legendary Ella Fitzgerald.

Los Van Van--one of the spectacular successes of last year’s festival--makes a return appearance on the Sunday program, underscoring the growing importance of Latin jazz as a vital element in the Playboy Festival. Also on Sunday, Fourplay--with pianist Bob James, guitarist Larry Carlton, bassist Nathan East and drummer Harvey Mason--brings rare talent and inspiration to the easygoing melodies and funk rhythms of smooth jazz.

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The festival’s other acts represent a knowledgeable assortment of genres ranging from world music and Latin jazz to New Orleans, from mainstream to contemporary, from vocals to big bands.

Once again, for example, Playboy has continued its acknowledgment of the growing intersection taking place between jazz and other musics from around the world by including some appealing international acts. King Sunny Ade’s African Beats Band, also on Saturday’s program, will showcase his soft voice, his juju rhythms and his infectious dance-steps.

And, in a bow to Jelly Roll Morton’s assertion that all good jazz needs a “Spanish tinge,” the spectacular, bebop-based Cuban trumpeter Arturo Sandoval will appear, backed in his Saturday performance by his Hot House Tour Big Band. On the same program, conga master Poncho Sanchez’s Latin Jazz Band will demonstrate the musical compatibility of salsa and jazz.

Sound like a good program so far? Yes, indeed, and there’s much more.

Saturday’s lineup also includes Nicholas Payton--whose trumpet style manages to fuse traces of Louis Armstrong into a framework of mainstream bebop--performing with his quintet. The Billy Higgins All-Stars--with Higgins on drums, saxophonists Harold Land and Charles McPherson, trumpeter Oscar Brashear, pianist Billy Childs and bassist Jeff Littleton--carry the flag for Los Angeles jazz on the program. At the other end of the historical spectrum, clarinetist Pete Fountain and his New Orleans Jazz Band recall the sounds that formed the music’s foundation. And the Los Angeles-based Royal Crown Revue’s foot-tapping music makes a convincing case for the fact that swing is alive and well.

Also on the Sunday bill: Ruth Brown, a singer who invests her R&B; performances with touches of jazz, making her second Playboy appearance; six-time Grammy nominee Louis Bellson--described by the late Duke Ellington as “the world’s greatest drummer”--and his big band; edgy alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett, whose album, “Pursuance,” won the 1997 Down Beat Readers’ Poll for best album; the muddy-sounding but immensely likable music of Howard Johnson’s Gravity, with its lineup of six tubas and a rhythm section; and the dance rhythm music of Sheila E.

“For this 20th anniversary,” says Rosenzweig, “I believe we have a two-day show that spotlights legends and up-and-coming stars in a lineup that is powerful from start to finish.”