JAZZ REVIEWS : ‘PORTRAITS IN JAZZ’

The first entry in a continuing series of festival-style programs titled “Portraits in Jazz” turned out to be long on music and a bit short on listeners Saturday afternoon and evening at the Wadsworth Theater.

Structured as mini-jazz histories, with ragtime and Dixieland groups performing on an outdoor stage in the afternoon and swing, be-bop and contemporary jazz ensembles inside the theater for an evening concert, the programs (which were underwritten by Jaguar Motorcars and Alpine/Luxman) were attended by enthusiastic but sparse audiences.

With the exception of the open-air romps by the estimable Golden Eagle Jazz Band (which again featured the fine blues singing of Chris Norris) and the Miss-Behavin’ Jass Band, most of the high-level action took place at the evening venue. Topping the program was the Terry Gibbs/Buddy DeFranco Quintet, steaming their way through a too-short hour’s worth of hard-swinging be-bop.

Clarinetist DeFranco, a magisterial figure in his 60s, looking as ramrod erect as an English army major, played with astonishing fluency, whizzing around the instrument with a fire and fury that totally belied his straight-laced image.

On the hyper-fast revival of “Air Mail Special,” as well as the multi-chromatic “Blues for Brodie,” DeFranco and the ever-enthusiastic Gibbs demonstrated that fast does not necessarily mean glib, that technically adroit players can play with passion and inventiveness.

Mundell Lowe’s honey-smooth quintet closed the evening with a group of state-of-the-art mainstream improvisations done with an almost casual ease.

Like DeFranco, the business-suited, dignified-looking Lowe could probably pass for a banker (perhaps even for a business associate of Blake Carrington’s), but the urgent, blues-driven thrust of his guitar lines left little doubt about his continuing authenticity as a superb jazz player.

Also performing on the evening program were the entertaining singer-trumpeter Clora Bryant and--in an odd twist of programming--the Hot Frogs Jumping Jazz Band.