Progressive Risks Pay Off at Playboy Festival

Musical risk is not something one ordinarily anticipates experiencing at a jazz festival. Especially one with the wide-open, party-time qualities of the Playboy Jazz Festival. So it’s understandable that both the production and the programming tend to reflect the flow of energy throughout the day--from the more musically receptive, sober hours of the early afternoon to the evening’s high-spirited dancing in the aisles.

The second day of the 22nd annual Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday seemed primed to encourage that flow with a lineup that balanced straight-ahead jazz with the multi-culturalism that was a prime subtext for this year’s event.

But it’s unlikely that anyone anticipated Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra would make the spontaneous decision that, yes, musical risk is well worth taking, regardless of the circumstances. Appearing in the early evening, star slot position, the LCJO devoted virtually all of its set to a stunning presentation of Marsalis’ extended suite, “Big Train.”

Not only was it risky to present an hourlong, continuous piece to an audience primed to groove, but it was doubly risky within the difficult acoustical environment of the Bowl. The LCJO had its own sound man in control, and that was a plus, but “Big Train” is a composition with an enormous range of sound, with the orchestra frequently simulating both the grand and the minuscule qualities of a cross-country train.

Amazingly, it worked--and worked superbly. The suite was filled with shifting musical currents--roiling boogie rhythms, steaming brass explosions, lush, Ellingtonesque saxophone ensembles--all of it enhancing some brilliant soloing, including a stunning trumpet exchange between Marsalis and Ryan Kisor. And Marsalis’ gamble paid off: He delivered an eminently worthwhile, challenging musical piece that the audience loved.

As a final bit of musical dessert, he delivered a foot-stomping, New Orleans finale that transformed the wide stretches of the Bowl into a sea of waving white napkins and handkerchiefs.

And it may be that Marsalis’ risk-taking was actually reflecting something that was in the air. Puerto Rican tenor saxophonist David Sanchez, appearing earlier with his sextet, offered a take-no-prisoners set that typified--perhaps better than any act on the entire two-day festival--an utterly seamless, insistently compelling blend of jazz and Latin rhythms.

Soloing brilliantly, combining in symbiotic fashion with alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon, Sanchez offered some material from “Melaza,” an about-to-be released new album that takes a far more adventurous path than the Latin classics of his previous, Grammy-nominated “Obsesion.”

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More unexpectedly, Ruben Blades, always a compelling singer, showed up with a first-rate Costa Rican ensemble featuring violinist Ricardo Ramirez, guitarist Edin Solis Rodriguez and keyboardist Walter Flores Mora in a program that juxtaposed Blades’ assertive singing within arrangements filled with fast-moving lines, complex harmonies and Latin rhythms surging with jazz-like drive.

Other artists performed somewhat more predictably. Banjoist Bela Fleck and his quartet, masterful users of performance electronics, offered a program that was both visually and musically intriguing. Saxophonist Jeff Coffin effectively revived the Rahsaan Roland Kirk technique of playing two saxophones simultaneously, while drummer Future Man displayed his amazing facility with an over-the-shoulder, guitar-like percussion controller. And Fleck--whose fast fingers are fortunately matched by an equivalent improvisational musicality--used his banjo as a MIDI controller, frequently delivering very un-banjo like, mellow guitar sounds.

The Elvin Jones Jazz Machine preserved the memory of John Coltrane via the leaders’ high-voltage drumming and the saxophone work of Antoine Roney. The local group Bonesoir made a convincing case for the versatility of the trombone via the work of sliphorn masters George Bohanon, Garnett Brown, Steve Baxter, Maurice Spears and Isaac Smith.

Master of Ceremonies Bill Cosby’s Cos of Good Music V had few surprises, but plenty of straight-ahead, entertaining jazz numbers featuring such talented soloists as Gary Bartz, Billy Harper, Eddie Henderson and Hilton Ruiz, with Cosby himself tossing in a few drum licks.

And Norman Brown opened the late-afternoon party-time segment with a set of his certified, smooth jazz numbers, tossing in some effective, George Benson-like instrumental-vocal variations.

The festival’s final hours offered the fewest risks of all. Salsa queen Celia Cruz kept the aisle full of dancers, but at this point in her career, her singing is mostly about style and manner rather than musical substance and accuracy. More to the point, it was a set that had little to do with jazz or, for that matter, with the interface between jazz and Latin music.

Lou Rawls, closing the festival, was as smooth, mellow and ‘60s-hip as ever.