By Mike Joyce
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, May 12, 2003; Page C05
By the time the Kennedy Center's eighth annual Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival concluded on Saturday night, size didn't matter. Ensembles large and small made impressive showings during three nights of performances staged at the Terrace Theater. At one end of the lineup was the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra, the great 17-member big band now celebrating its 30th anniversary. Generously showcasing Akiyoshi's striking orchestral designs and Lew Tabackin's stellar virtuosity on tenor sax and flute, the band produced a series of multi-hued performances -- hard-swinging, intricately woven and, in the midst of colorful tributes to Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus, wonderfully evocative. At the other end was 23-year-old newcomer Lizz Wright, a Georgia-bred singer-songwriter who will release her major label debut album Tuesday. In addition to performing with her tightknit trio, Wright enthralled the audience with the sheer beauty and soulful thrust of her unaccompanied voice -- a supple, gospel-inflected contralto. She walked onstage unannounced, to a smattering of applause. She walked off to a standing ovation -- easily the most rousing and spontaneous response heard during the entire event. While the Akiyoshi orchestra dramatically capped the festival's opening concert Thursday night, the evening offered other, comparatively small-scale delights. Bassist Mary Ann McSweeney led her sextet through a performance that embraced both straight-ahead jazz and world beat sounds, with considerable help from sitarist Nana Simopoulos. Melissa Walker, a sorely underrated jazz vocalist, then cast her customary spell in an intimate, ballad-laden quintet setting, colorfully enhanced by vibist Stefon Harris. Friday night's concert contrasted the elegant with the earthy. Pianist Renee Rosnes and her trio mates opened with a lovely, occasionally haunting and always imaginatively arranged collection of pop standards and original pieces. Singer Gloria Lynne and Hammond B-3 organist Gloria Coleman then swiftly turned back the clock to a time when pop, jazz and R&B co-mingled on the airwaves. Lynne, backed by her versatile band, performed first, reprising "I Wish You Love" and other hits without a hint of rote delivery and in a voice that still rings wise and true. Coleman followed suit, delighting the crowd with her after-hours organ trio grooves and spectacularly raspy vocals. Austrian-born alto saxophonist Karolina Strassmayer and her quartet kicked things off Saturday with an engaging and sometimes whimsical selection of original material. Drummer Terri Lyne Carrington's brash quartet, featuring saxophonist Gary Thomas, forged a cohesive and vigorously propulsive festival coda, despite the absence of scheduled guest vocalist Teena Marie. The festival's pacing has improved in recent years, and except for some microphone problems, the concerts were glitch-free. But while all the bands were given roughly the same amount of time onstage, some clearly merited more than others. Certainly trimming the opening performances on Thursday night, as enjoyable as they were, would have made a lot of sense, because it would have given the Akiyoshi orchestra a chance to explore its vast repertoire more fully. As it was, the ensemble had to race to finish in time. Barbara Carroll received the sold-out festival's annual lifetime achievement award, though the veteran jazz pianist and singer said she prefers to view the honor as a "halftime" distinction. In her brief remarks, Carroll recalled coming up in an age when even the finest female jazz artists routinely attracted left-handed compliments along the lines of "you play good for a girl" or "you sound like a man." Not surprisingly, she was heartened by the sound of so many gifted women expressing themselves. And she certainly wasn't alone.