Spectrum of groove

He didn’t play a horn. He didn’t lead a band. He didn’t sing a tune or write an arrangement.

Yet a single, slim performer, delivering a substantial portion of his set with practically no accompaniment, virtually stole the show at the 26th Playboy Jazz Festival on Saturday at the Hollywood Bowl.

His name: Savion Glover. His game: tap dancing. And his stunning performance on a wooden platform placed at stage center in the shell of the newly renovated Bowl was a classic, an immediate entry in the list of the Playboy Festival’s most memorable moments.

It didn’t start out that way, however. As with many of the day’s other individual sets, the audio reproduction at the opening of Glover’s offering was muddy and indistinct -- a particularly distracting problem for an artist whose work shimmers with far-ranging rhythmic subtleties (and a problem tracing not to the Bowl’s new, well-defined acoustics, but to the familiar problem of audio engineers’ tinkering).

Once adjusted, the sound, as well as the visuals on a pair of large LED video screens flanking the stage, revealed the brilliance of Glover’s dancing.

Tappers dating back to the legendary Bill Robinson have found inspiration in the propulsiveness of jazz. But Glover has explored that alliance with extraordinary authenticity. His sweat-drenched, seemingly fatigue-less performance, climaxing with a long, rhythmically layered romp through “My Favorite Things,” was a drum solo sans drums, in which the sounds and textures of a full percussion ensemble were rendered by the dynamic movements of his flashing feet.

At the other end of the musical spectrum, but underscored with a similar creative integrity, a quartet of jazz ensembles -- led by alto saxophonist Charles McPherson, bassist Christian McBride, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and comedian Bill Cosby -- presented jazz in its more familiar, horn-driven instrumental form. Collectively, their work encompassed the stylistic diversity of the music’s past half a century.

McPherson is a veteran performer whose bop-drenched sound and style played an important role in the soundtrack of “Bird,” Clint Eastwood’s film tribute to Charlie Parker. He’s far more than a Parker simulator, however. His improvisations flowed from the root elements of bop, but quickly flowered into his own delightful musical visions. Even in “Billy’s Bounce” -- a tune inextricably linked to Parker -- McPherson effortlessly ripped through fast-fingered licks and blues-driven phrases, his alto saxophone lines singing with urgently inventive originality.

McBride, arguably one of the finest bassists in contemporary jazz, is a musically omnivorous talent, comfortable with every imaginable style. His group spent most of its set exploring the electric jazz environment of the ‘70s and ‘80s with material such as Weather Report’s “Boogie Woogie Waltz.”

McBride’s performances are always highlighted by his own virtuosic playing, on acoustic and electric basses. And this performance, energized by his gorgeous, dark-toned accompaniments and articulate soloing, was no exception.

Like McBride, Marsalis leaps genre boundaries. Performing with his quintet, rather than his septet (as anticipated), he was in a New Orleans state of mind. Alternating an occasional straight-ahead swinger with the loose, jaunty groove of traditional jazz, he saluted the late Ray Charles with a buoyant second-line spiritual that brought the crowd into the aisles, accompanied by a full house flurry of waving handkerchiefs.

Cosby’s “Cos of Good Music” ensembles are annual all-star assemblages delivering performances only a few steps removed from a jam session. This year’s set included typically high voltage playing by saxophonist James Carter and trumpeter Wallace Roney. But -- problematically -- Cosby, who has previously limited his musical participation to playing a relatively harmless cowbell or hand drum, made his contributions via a full drum kit, an ominous development for the future of Cos’ Good Music.

The balance of the acts typified the big-tent approach that has characterized jazz festivals during an era in which the genre has produced far fewer of the iconic figures who dominated the music in the decades before the ‘70s. The results, if less innovative as jazz, were no less impactful as entertainment.

South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela’s varied performance included “Stimela,” a gripping musical depiction of a coal miner’s train ride from the apartheid period, and the foot-tapping rhythms of “Grazin’ in the Grass.” Keyboardist-trombonist Brian Culbertson danced and pranced his way through a mixed blend of smooth jazz and groove rhythms, aided by the showboat saxophone work of Michael Lington.

And Yerba Buena’s stewpot full of styles -- from Afro-Cuban rhythms and Nuyorican dance grooves to dashes of hip-hop and Middle Eastern melodies -- stimulated freely improvised dancing at every level of the giant venue.

Finally, there was Etta James, reportedly weighing 170 pounds less than in her last Playboy appearance, looking and sounding wonderful. The Grammy-winning singer has earned enough awards and accolades to last several lifetimes. But she seemed, with her attractive, newly revised image, to have found enhanced musical inspiration, as well -- best evidenced by gorgeous interpretations of two of her classics, the sardonic “Damn Your Eyes” and the inimitable “At Last.”

The festival program, well-paced -- courtesy of the Bowl’s new built-in, rotating stage -- was opened by the talented Washington Preparatory High School Jazz Ensemble at the start of the day, and closed with the high-spirited big band music of Jose Rizo and the Jazz on the Latin Side All Stars.