Tadd Dameron Salute Highlights Bebop Celebration

“Groovin’ High: A Celebration of the Bebop Era” kicked off a four-day run at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Redondo Beach on Thursday with a full slate of events. Surveying various aspects of the bebop era, the program included panel discussions recalling the early years at classic Manhattan locations such as Minton’s and the many spots on 52nd Street, as well as a string of convincing performances.

One of the most unusual featured the combination of vibist Terry Gibbs, pianist Alice Coltrane, tenor saxophonist Ravi Coltrane and drummer Gerry Gibbs. The senior Gibbs and Coltrane worked together in the early ‘60s, and their offspring have been long-term friends and musical associates for years. And although Coltrane has subsequently become best known for a more spiritual musical perspective, she was firmly led back to her bebop roots by the irrepressibly swinging elder Gibbs.

The most fascinating event of the day, however, was an evening concert devoted to the music of pianist/composer Tadd Dameron. Among all the many well-known names associated with bebop--reaching from Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie to Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell--Dameron’s may strike the faintest chord of recognition. Which is odd, given his authorship of such seminal bebop anthems as “Hot House,” “Good Bait,” “Lady Bird,” “Our Delight” and the sumptuous ballad “If You Could See Me Now.”

Like others in the bebop pantheon, his passage was a rapid, shooting-star transit impacted by drug problems. He died in 1965 at the age of 48.

The “Groovin’ High” evening program was appropriately titled “Dameronia” (which was, by the way, also the name of a group, briefly formed by drummer Philly Joe Jones in the early ‘80s to celebrate Dameron’s music). The performers included tenor saxophonists Jimmy Heath and Allen Eager, trombonist Slide Hampton, pianist Barry Harris, bassist Trevor Ware and drummer Sherman Ferguson.

The ensemble played most of the Dameron classics noted above, as well as his “Soultrane,” written for John Coltrane, and performed here in a rich-toned rendering by Heath.

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“Groovin’ High: A Celebration of the Bebop Era” continues today and Sunday at the Crowne Plaza Redondo Beach & Marina Hotel, 300 North Harbor Drive, Redondo Beach. Today’s performances include appearances by the Claude Williamson Trio, James Moody’s Modernists and an All-Star Tribute to Charlie Parker featuring Supersax, Phil Woods, Hank Jones and others. Sunday’s program includes the Frank Morgan Quartet and the Birdland All-Stars (with Woods, Jones, Gibbs, Buddy DeFranco and others). Information: (909) 593-4180.