Edition: U.S. / Global

Jazz Festival; High Noon in Be-Bop Land With Saxophone Shoot-Out

Published: June 29, 1991

Be-Bop: 40 and Younger, a concert held at the Equitable Center Thursday night that featured young musicians, cruised along amiably enough through the first half, then erupted in the second. The show, part of the JVC Jazz Festival, reached its high point with a three- saxophone shoot out, just the sort of thing that audiences love.

On Charlie Parker's "Donna Lee," the saxophonists Christopher Hollyday, Billy Pierce and Bobby Watson, backed by a trio that included Mulgrew Miller on piano, Chris McBride on bass and Billy Drummond on drums, took each other on in an old-fashioned blowing war.

At a mercurial tempo meant to stun lesser musicians, Mr. Hollyday soloed first, sounding a bit kazoo-like and spewing notes like a computer gone out of control, randomly printing out its old files. Blowing sessions are muscular battles that don't pay too much attention to fine art, and Mr. Pierce, starting slowly, had to play catch up. Then in stepped Bobby Watson and the bloodbath began., With his wailing blues phrases and coiled and tense rhythms, Mr. Williams walked away with the audience, which was cheering him on.

The show's trumpeters -- Wallace Roney, Roy Hargrove and Jon Faddis -- came out next to play a piece by Tadd Dameron. Mr. Hargrove to danced easily through the tune's harmonic maze, varying his phrasing from the graceful and smooth to the nasty; Mr. Roney, who seemed lost the whole show, stuttered and fumbled while Mr. Faddis roared, mixing be-bop phrases with high-powered shouts.

Then the show stopped, apparently over. The musicians looked off stage, and out ambled an unannounced guest: Dizzy Gillespie. Though he's a bit over 40, his playing on "Joy Spring" that brought smiles to the faces of his younger colleagues. Soloing at the volume of a whisper, Mr. Gillespie, one of the founding fathers of bebop, added detail after detail to his improvisations, letting rhythms pile on top of rhythms, yet making the whole thing sound logical.

After doing the same thing through "Autumn Leaves," Mr. Gillespie and the trumpeters were joined by the rest of the musicians for a set of solos that lacerated his "Night in Tuniesia." The concert ended with a series of unaccompanied cadenzas on the tune by everyone involved.;

That sort of comparison was ultimately the point of the show. Though it had been labeled a be-bop concert, and it could have been a retrospective, it was, instead, a way to hear a whole set of younger musicians testing their personalities, and their ability to invent. Afterward the show, critics and fans gathered in groups to haggle over the relative merits of each player's improvisations. The jazz renaissance is provoking its share of dissent, a good sign.

Photo: Bobby Watson performing in the concert "Be-Bop: 40 and Younger," part of the JVC Jazz festival, Thursday night at the Equitable Center. (John S. Abbott)