NEA Jazz Masters: A Dizzying Array of All-Stars

Leave it to Paquito D'Rivera to get the biggest laugh during the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival at the Lincoln Theatre over the weekend.

Participating in the NEA Jazz Masters concert Saturday night, the Cuban-born reedman joked that he had written a bossa nova for Dizzy Gillespie because "I knew how much he loved the music of illegal aliens." The ridiculous soon gave way to the sublime, however, as D'Rivera unfurled a lovely clarinet-limned melody that he said was alternately known as "I Remember Dizzy" and "A Night in Mexico City."

The Friday and Saturday night concerts delivered other big rewards, including plenty of large-ensemble delights. Both the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band contributed resounding performances -- swinging, shouting and soulful by turns -- during Saturday's Jazz Masters celebration. David Baker, who conducted the SJMO, and Slide Hampton, who filled the same role in the Gillespie ensemble, devised some of the pieces, while others were composed or arranged by the likes of Benny Carter, George Russell and Dennis Mackrel. Carter's gorgeous "Blue Star," performed by the SJMO, was among the wonderfully evocative treats, its dreamy theme and noirish tints instantly erasing all memory of the rock era.

And as for big moments, none was bigger (or more moving) than when pianist Hank Jones and trumpeter Clark Terry were awarded the festival's Lifetime Achievement Awards. Afterward, the two jazz titans teamed up with bassist George Mraz and charmed the large crowd with a cozy, impromptu performance of "The Nearness of You."

Besides D'Rivera, Baker, Hampton and Jones, the lineup of National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Masters included the ever-youthful and engaging saxophonists Jimmy Heath and James Moody. Playing tenor sax, Heath was heard to particularly good advantage during the All-Star band's performance of his Gillespie-inspired composition, "Without You, No Me." Moody, meanwhile, revealed the heretofore unknown link between scatting and yodeling during a freewheeling arrangement of Gillespie's "Blue 'n' Boogie," a performance that also provided a spirited showcase for the gifted vocalist Roberta Gambarini. Cubop, salsa, samba and Latin funk sounds filled the air Friday night when the festival saluted Gillespie with an all-star tribute. The turnout was disappointing, but the audience was game, eager to clap out a clave beat when called upon and quick to reward the musicians with standing ovations.

Dubbed "In the Footsteps of Dizzy," the program prominently featured five of Gillespie's proteges: pianist Danilo Perez, trombonist Steve Turre, trumpeter Claudio Roditi, saxophonist David Sanchez and trumpeter Roy Hargrove.

All but Hargrove participated in an opening set laced with signature touches: The Panama-born Perez contrasted light-fingered melodic variations with crashing chords on Stevie Wonder's "Overjoyed"; Turre punctuated a burnished rendition of "Con Alma" with a solo that made both melodic and rhythmic use of conch shells; Sanchez moved through the debut performance of his multi-faceted piece "Cultural Survival" with the juggernaut drive associated with fellow tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins; and Roditi, on fluegelhorn, had no difficulty sustaining an air of glowing lyricism. Contributing rhythmic drive and nuance all the while were bassist Ben Street, drummer Adam Cruz and the remarkably resourceful percussionist Pernell Saturnino.

Hargrove capped Friday's show on an exhilarating note. In full command of his horn and often projecting a searing tone, the trumpeter played with such lung-depleting intensity at times that the effort nearly knocked him off his feet. The trumpeter found a worthy mate and foil in alto saxophonist Justin Robinson, especially when it came time for the quintet to forge a hard-bop frontline or for the two musicians to pass the baton back and forth during breathlessly paced choruses.

Hargrove and Robinson also performed with the Gillespie All-Star Band on Saturday night. Indeed, they helped the ensemble bring the Lincoln Theatre bashes to a close with an incendiary arrangement of the Gillespie-Gil Fuller anthem "Things to Come."