Monterey Jazz Festival, 1973
John L. Wasserman
Well, it's Monterey Jazz Festival time again, kids, and maestro Jimmy Lyons has come up with a quintessential program to mark this 16th year of the oldest non-floating American jazz festival.
The essence of Monterey has long since become defined. It means theme shows, blues on Saturday afternoon, jazz kiddies on Sunday afternoon, the "surprise guests" so dear to Lyons' heart, some unexpected pleasures and a vast number of veteran, big-name, mainstream jazz artists of unarguable worth, stature and popularity.
Lyons and Monterey have years ago abandoned any pretense of presenting a full spectrum of jazz designed to appeal to all segments of the public. There have been occasional token musicians from the avant-garde but even these have been veterans with a stature of their own, i.e., an Ornette Coleman, who might be defined as mainstream experimental.
That's fine, too, unless you are advertising yourself as a showcase for tomorrow as well as yesterday. Lyons does not do this. He is quite frank. To him, Monterey is almost a child, his baby, and if you have a baby you like, you do not turn it in for a new model every year. The limbs of that baby are those musicians with whom Lyons has, in effect, grown up and with whom he has been friends for many years. Lyons is somewhere around 50; as is his musical director, John Lewis; the Modern Jazz Quartet bassist Ray Brown, pianist Ellis Larkins, guitarist Mundell Lowe, trumpet player Clark Terry, drummer Max Roach, singer Carmen McRae, alto saxophonist Sonny Stitt, trumpet player Thad Jones, singer Jon Hendricks and so on and on. Rhetorically, all are playing Monterey this weekend. Also unnecessary to say, all have played Monterey before. And likely will again.
With this booking philosophy has come tremendous success. Every year of recent times, the festival played to around 90 percent capacity for the three-day, five-concert program. Lyons has developed and nurtured an audience for Monterey. They, in turn, know what they will get every year: good, solid music, nothing excessively jarring, a lot of fun, a lot of stars, a few surprises and, in many cases, smashed out of their melons.
Indeed, Monterey has become a party, both in Lyons' conception and in fact. It is a place for a weekend respite from everyday woes, for renewing annual friendships, for wearing funny hats and drinking cold beer and dancing in the aisles (usually to Big Joe Turner) and sitting up under the grandstand roof, chit-chatting the warm summer day away.
Monterey is not without its flaws. Aforementioned chit-chatters - well-fortified, of course - can create a quite remarkable din. And the predictability of many performers is not conducive to excitement. But to correct this would be to demand that Monterey be something it isn't and doesn't try to be. Given his stated and implied goals, Jimmy Lyons has created an event of flawless consistency.
Of this year's shows, tonight looks like the best, at least on paper. The Pointer Sisters will bring freshness and their extraordinary jazz singing to the show. Buddy Rich will blow the walls down with his big band and make people laugh at his consummate arrogance, and two bands - Clare Fischer's Quintet and the MJF Quartet (aforementioned Brown, Lowe, Lewis and drummer Roy Burns) will wrap up the group part of the show. Then will come the kicker, a "Piano Playhouse" featuring Larkins, Lewis, Billy Taylor and Toshiko Akiyoshi. All but Lewis are rarely seen in Northern California. I have written of Larkins before, but still feel obliged to mention that, in areas of tastefulness and finesse, he is transcendent.
Saturday afternoon is guaranteed fun - Jon Hendricks, master of ceremony with Bo Diddley, Dave Alexander, Mance Lipscomb, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson and Jimmy Rogers and his Chicago Blues Band. Saturday evening is cliche - Monterey - Dizzy Gillespie's Quintet, the MJQ, Carmen McRae and like that. The theme for the evening is "Bird Night." Toward that end, Supersax will play their verbatim transcription of Charlie Parker solos and a special Festival band will present a tribute to the late, nonpareil also saxophonist.
Sunday afternoon is the high-school all-star bands, with various visiting dignitaries. Sunday night will have a new theme - "Family Night." The stage will veritably crawl with filial relationships, including the Joneses, Heaths, Candolis, Turrentines, Rowleses and the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis big band.
And for frosting, throughout the weekend, the great New York jazz tap-dancers Baby Lawrence, Buster Brown, Chuck Green and John T. McPhee will perform between acts.
Another vintage year at Monterey.
This column originally appeared on page Q - 41 of the San Francisco Chronicle, September 1973.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/09/PKEG1H0KF3.DTL
