Everything From J to Z

The three phases of the 24th Playboy Jazz Festival were on full display Saturday in the opening performances of the two-day gala at the Hollywood Bowl.

Any program that takes place over the course of more than eight hours of literally nonstop entertainment is bound to experience varying segments--both musically and experientially. For the Playboy Festival, those segments have usually unfolded in afternoon, dinner-hour and prime-time sequences. Saturday’s program was no exception.

What was fascinating about the sequences, however, was the fact that most of them contained, within their individual group of artists, a stylistic range embracing everything from lighthearted entertainment to introspective improvisational jazz.

The day’s festivities opened, for example, with a set from the L.A. Multi-School Jazz Band, followed by a characteristically energetic performance from singer Lavay Smith and her Red Hot Skillet Lickers Band. Entertaining, yes. But the singing and playing of Smith and her players--who are usually identified with the Swing revivalist movement--reached well beyond the superficialities of the style and into its hard-swinging roots.

The Charles Mingus 80th Birthday Tribute Big Band, followed by singer Nnenna Freelon, produced the segment’s (and, in fact, much of the day’s) most invigorating jazz moments. Guided by Mingus’ widow, Sue, the Big Band has transited forward from an ensemble that preserves Mingus’ music to one that enhances and develops his musical ideas in a fashion that would have pleased him.

With sterling soloists, such as saxophonist John Stubblefield, trumpeter Alex Sipiagin and trombonist/singer Ku-umba Frank Lacy leading the way, the Mingus ensemble offered a powerful reminder of the thrilling potential of big-band jazz.

Freelon, concentrating on a program of Stevie Wonder songs from her current album, sang with exquisite musicality and an unerring sense of swing. In her capable hands, the Wonder catalog is beginning to look like a valuable addition to the Great American Songbook. Closing out the segment, Joe Lovano’s seven piece ensemble never quite managed to get up to speed, failing to effectively re-create the spirit or the substance of a new album of music associated with opera singer Enrico Caruso.

Playboy’s dinner-hour period usually produces the day’s most celebratory moments. Performers unaware of the desire for action in an audience that has spent four hours sunning, eating and drinking can be in for a difficult time. But festival producer Darlene Chan, well aware of the situation, generally schedules acts capable of stimulating the traditional conga lines, beach-ball volleys and handkerchief waving.

In this case, it was the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, with clarinetist Pete Fountain, that kicked off the dinner-hour revelry. Romping through a set of familiar New Orleans classics (including “Just a Closer Walk With Thee” and “When the Saints Go Marching In”), they triggered a gleeful parade of listeners, many carrying colorful umbrellas and wearing fanciful headgear.

Trumpeter Arturo Sandoval followed, lighting the stage with his extraordinary versatility--ripping bebop licks on his trumpet, vigorously playing the timbales and moving to the piano for a brief, rhapsodic moment. His galvanizing performance was immediately picked up by the dynamic Cuban band Maraca, whose intoxicating rhythms and vocals quickly filled the aisles with fans happily indulging their idiosyncratic interpretations of salsa dancing.

The festival’s prime-time segment shifted gears with the arrival of the Wynton Marsalis septet to the stage. For many jazz fans, this is the group that represents the best of the influential trumpeter’s many activities. Performing a program resonating with echoes of New Orleans, Duke Ellington and Mingus--primary Marsalis influences--the ensemble (with adventurous soloing from Marsalis, saxophonist Wessell Anderson and--especially--drummer Herlin Riley impressively blurred the line between entertainment and art.

The presence of Etta James on the bill wasn’t surprising; she has appeared to great acclaim in the past. But placing her in the headliner position seemed strange, especially since James failed to include any numbers on her program that offered a particular linkage to jazz. Still, there was no denying the appeal of her husky, passionate voice when she wailed the gripping, opening line to her hit, “At Last,” and dug into such classic, blues-drenched tunes as “I’d Rather Be a Blind Girl” and “Sugar on the Floor.”

Saturday’s Playboy Jazz Festival wrapped with the sounds of the Marcus Miller ensemble. The eclectic bassist’s music--tinged with references to his association with Miles Davis, enhanced by a versatility that took him from electric bass to bass clarinet (and a touching rendering of “Amazing Grace”)--provided an appropriate closing for a day encompassing the length and breadth of jazz’s infinite capacity for creative expression.