Swinging Low--and Hard, Sweet, Strong

Jazz flutists tend to be of two types, often broken down by gender. There’s the sweet, delicate type who work in gauzy lines of angelic quality. Then there’s the rowdy, rough-toned players who try to make their instrument sound more masculine, more like a tenor saxophone.

Few seem able to do both (Hubert Laws is one) or to escape the cliches so readily attached to the flute. Holly Hofmann can.

Working with her San Diego-based quartet Sunday evening before a small audience in a banquet room of the Newport Beach Marriott, Hofmann proved once again that she understands both the masculine and feminine qualities inherent in her instrument, while creating an expansive range of tone and feeling, sometimes tough, sometimes tender.

Hofmann moved easily inside this duality, showing her tender side on a request for “Emily,” getting technically assertive, even belligerent, on Bill Cunliffe’s “Flutopia” (also the title of her recently release Azica recording, on which Cunliffe plays organ).

Sometimes a tune held examples of both, as with “Nice Work if You Can Get It,” in which she hit a number of dynamic high points. In each number, she used an irresistible sense of swing that often seemed to bounce against the fine rhythm work of bassist Bob Magnusson and drummer Duncan Moore.

Pianist Mike Wofford, making what’s now an infrequent performance outside of San Diego--he was seen last month as part of the California Institute for the Preservation of Jazz’s West Coast II festival at the Hyatt Newporter--added sparkling, harmonically rich play to the music. He showed a sensitive, Bill Evans-like style on “What Am I Here For?,” a bit of stride during “Embraceable You” and a flat-out burn on “Flutopia.”

Wofford, a longtime accompanist for both Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, proved adept at moving behind soloists, pushing with sharply cut chords or adding simple color with lightly struck combinations. At times, he added some humor with off-kilter harmonies, a kind of screwball, Jerry Lewis-like slapstick that, on “What Am I Here For?,” dissolved into passages of stately beauty.

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Hofmann--who does get out of San Diego but makes too few Southern California appearances--will travel to New York this week to record live with Magnusson, keyboardist Cunliffe and drummer Victor Lewis over several nights at Birdland.

Sunday’s Newport Beach concert, a prelude to the West Coast Jazz Party to be held Labor Day weekend at the Irvine Marriott (in which Hofmann’s quartet will be featured) was disappointing only in its attendance. But the intimate surroundings and clear, direct sound made the first set a first-class musical experience.

* For information on the West Coast Jazz Party, Sept. 3-5 at the Irvine Marriott hotel, call: (949) 724-3602.