JAZZ REVIEW : JVC Festival Pays Tribute to ‘Sassy’ Sarah, Cheatham

NEW YORK â€”  Salutes to trumpeter Doc Cheatham, an engaging figure on the jazz scene for more than 50 years, and the late Sarah Vaughan, a premier vocal stylist in jazz and pop, were among the highlights as the 10-day JVC Jazz Festival hit full stride this week.

Curiously, there was a shortage of songs closely linked to Vaughan during “Friends of Sassy,� the Tuesday tribute emceed by Bill Cosby at Carnegie Hall.

Joe Williams, however, brought his personal touch to “Misty� and “Perdido,� and Roberta Flack lent her light, engaging timbre to “Tenderly.�

But where were the Brazilian songs? The Gershwins? Where was “Send in the Clowns�?

It fell to Shirley Horn to sing Carroll Coates’ attractive song “Sarah.� Pianist Bob James, a former Vaughan accompanist, recalled life on the road with her, then played his own “Wings for Sarah,� felicitously interweaving “Poor Butterfly.�

Billy Eckstine, with whom Vaughan sang in the Earl Hines and Eckstine orchestras, was in good form, but he too stayed mainly with his own songs--�I Apologize� and “Jelly Jelly.�

George Wein, the festival producer, told an anecdote about Vaughan in a Boston club singing “The Lord’s Prayer,� which was then performed by the opera star Florence Quivar to end the concert. Because Quivar employed a different melody that lacked the majestic glory on Vaughan’s recording, what could have been a stunning finale was oddly anticlimactic.

The night before at Town Hall, the tribute to Cheatham was wryly subtitled “86 and Still Blowing Strong,� a reference to his octogenarian status.

This affectionate program set its sights high and achieved its objective on several levels: High notes, high spirits, high regard for the subjects.

Although Cheatham himself appeared several times, the main playing was left to his juniors, who ranged from Harry (Sweets) Edison, 75, to Wynton Marsalis, 29, along with Dizzy Gillespie, Jon Faddis, Byron Stripling, Marcus Belgrave and Ruby Braff--seven steps to trumpet heaven.

The hornmen appeared in several groupings, the most startling of which was a threesome that comprised Marsalis, Stripling and Faddis. Separately and jointly, they re-created and elongated the classic Louis Armstrong recording of “West End Blues,� starting with a note-for-note duplication of Satchmo’s opening cadenza before moving onward and upward.

Marsalis, his style still evolving, has found a new way of working out complex, between-the-cracks rhythms so dazzling that they brought bursts of mid-solo applause. Stripling was more orthodox yet commandingly assertive. Faddis topped it off with supersonic tones that were not simply grandstanding; every altissimo note was flawless in pitch, tone and sequential logic. Armstrong would scarcely have believed him.

Cheatham, a modest man of considerable charm and a natural melodist whose solos and vocals conquered balky mikes, returned to join the entire company for a joy-inducing jam on “Struttin’ With Some Barbecue.� The whole evening summed up what the best jazz today is all about: Tradition stirred in with evolution and inspiration.

“Bobby Short’s New York,� heard Sunday at Carnegie Hall, lived up fitfully to its self-congratulatory premise. When Short, a congenial host, was at the piano singing “Drop Me Off in Harlem,� he captured the essence of a New York that used to be; in his stand-up songs, particularly when he dueted with Ruth Brown or Margaret Whiting and attempted to dance, he seemed affected and ill at ease.

Whiting, a tireless pop singer, brought proud conviction to “I Happen to Like New York.� Brown suffered from the absence of her own band, which served her so well at the Playboy Festival, and from fluffy songs like “Let Me Off Uptown,� ill suited to her down-home R&B; style.

The surprise show-stealer was trumpeter “Sweets� Edison, whose muted “Lover Man� and obbligatos to Short on “Harlem Butterfly� and “I Got It Bad� brought a needed touch of soul to counterbalance the nostalgia. The festival continues through Sunday.