Uneven evening for ‘Lowdown’ at Bowl

“Jazz Lowdown,” Wednesday’s second installment in the summer’s Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl series, was a concert in search of a theme. It would be difficult to imagine a more disparate group of performers than singers Boz Scaggs and Cassandra Wilson and pianist-singer Eliane Elias. And the phrase “Jazz Lowdown” doesn’t offer much as an inclusive umbrella.

From a jazz perspective, the program started well with the appearance of Elias. The Sao Paulo-born artist, 44, has long been one of the underrated pianists of her generation. Singing, however, has been a recent addition to her areas of musical interest, and it is a talent that is still in the process of development. The highlight of her set, in fact, was the concluding instrumental version of the Antonio Carlos Jobim classic “Desafinado.” And it was a showcase demonstration of her mature jazz skills, via improvised choruses that brilliantly blended the passionate intensity of urban, bop-driven phrasing with the floating rhythms of bossa nova.

Elias’ vocals were a bit more problematic. Brazilian-style versions of the American standards “Call Me” and “Baubles, Bangles and Beads” were sung in pleasantly laid-back if somewhat colorless fashion. She was far better with Brazilian numbers such as Jobim’s “Fotografia” and, especially, Dorival Caymmi’s marvelous “Doralice,” her voice winding with elastic ease through the song’s rapidly moving, infectious melody.

Wilson offered a characteristically eclectic program, ranging from Bob Dylan’s “Lay, Lady Lay” and Sting’s “Fragile” to Willie Nelson’s “Crazy.” And, typically, she transformed each song into her own musical vehicle. Sounding and looking somewhat less somber than she has in the past, Wilson was at her best in the rare moments when her singing moved beyond dark, epigrammatic phrasing and into more illuminating areas of color and dynamics.

“Crazy” was a good example of her capacity to expand both her repertoire and her interpretive qualities.

A pair of blues numbers in which she played guitar was a further indication of a broadening perspective. And that’s a good sign. Despite her universal recognition in the jazz community, Wilson has always seemed a work in progress, only recently beginning to rise to the level of achievement that she seems so capable of reaching.

Scaggs’ presence on the program was a mystery. Despite recent flirtations with straight-ahead jazz, he was far more effective with his pop hits (“Jo Jo” and “Harbor Lights”) than he was with an odd, confused-sounding rendering of “Sophisticated Lady.”