The greats' music overflows from 3 Newport festival stages; Weekend celebrates the diversity of jazz.

Byline: Scott McLennan

COLUMN: MUSIC REVIEW

NEWPORT, R.I. - From a mystical solo piano performance by Abdullah Ibrahim to the rousing souled-out show put on by Al Green, the weekend JVC Jazz Festival-Newport underscored the diversity of what exactly constitutes jazz, doing more to raise possibilities than to answer the question in any sort of definitive way.

The Newport Jazz Festival is like an annual checkup on the body of jazz, and this year the results show a picture of glowing health. Three stages ran each day, resulting in often tough choices for the fans, numbering 6,500 on Saturday and 7,600 yesterday.

On Saturday, the festival hit overdrive early as legend Dave Brubeck made a surprise appearance early in the day with the band now led by his sons, Danny and Chris. The group lit into the patriarch's "Blue Rondo a La Turk," including a brilliant set of piano tradeoffs between Brubeck and the young Taylor Eigsti, playing in the Brubeck Brothers lineup.

Joshua Redman opened the main stage Saturday, focusing on hard-driving bop-oriented originals. Redman's bassist, Christian McBride, did not get a chance to rest much before taking part in the second main-stage act, a trio project comprised of the bass player, legendary drummer Jack DeJohnette, and piano player Bruce Hornsby.

Hornsby, long a genre-hopping player, held his own, but was in tough company on Saturday, as the day featured a main stage performance by Brubeck and his band; Ibrahim killed on the small Water Side stage; and Kenny Werner held court on the Pavilion stage.

Though piano bands had the spotlight on Saturday, the day offered some adventurous offshoots as well. Zap Mama crafted a simmering set of jazzy Afro-pop, and Gunther Schuller led the 10-piece Mingus Orchestra through a selection of daunting, and ultimately triumphant compositions written by Charles Mingus.

Bassist Marcus Miller made a rousing Newport debut with his band. Miller deftly touched upon his tenure with Miles Davis, then turned to net the possible nonbelievers with a jazzed-out rendition of The Beatles' "Come Together."

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis closed the festival that day, playing a set of complex and intricately arranged compositions that pushed his great band - Jeff "Tain" Watts on drums, Joey Calderazzo on piano, and Eric Revis on bass - to dizzying heights.

Speaking of Dizzy, the festival opened yesterday with the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band, led by trombonist Slide Hampton. The All-Stars lived up to their title, with the likes of Jimmy Heath, Cyrus Chestnut, Roy Hargrove and James Moody - all of whom have led groups of their own into Newport - occupying bandstand seats. The big band ate up the dynamics of Dizzy Gillespie classics, such as "Manteca."

Trombonist Steve Turre got the Pavilion Stage going yesterday with a tribute to Rashaan Roland Kirk. Turre's band took inventive turns through "Serenade to a KooKoo" and "Volunteered Slavery." Then Turre lit up the crowd with a rollicking display of his skills, blowing music through sea shells.

Just as Ibrahim made the small Water Side Stage the center of the universe on Saturday, sax player Donald Harrison did likewise yesterday, leading a young band including the scarily talented Christian Scott on trumpet, through a set that fused funk and swing into a mixture Harrison calls "nouveau swing."

The Pavilion Stage yesterday had broad programming, ranging from the delicate interplay displayed by the trio of bassist Ron Carter, guitarist Russell Malone and piano player Mulgrew Miller, to the duet guitar show put on by Bucky Pizzarelli and Howard Alden. Trumpet player Jon Faddis closed the Pavilion Stage with his band Teranga, further sealing the trumpet player's legacy as both an innovator and player of impeccable chops.

Much of the main stage yesterday was given over to blues and soul. Susan Tedeschi performed in place of the originally announced Etta James. James took ill a few weeks ago, but Tedeschi honored the blues queen by doing Otis Redding's "Security," a staple in James' repertoire.

Al Green won the day, though, with his feel-good set hitting upon such classics as "Let's Stay Together," "Love and Happiness" and "Here I Am." Wearing tux, white gloves and a million-megawatt smile, Green had the crowd up and dancing from the outset. And for all its entertainment value, Green still deposited a wealth of artistic craft into his show, displaying wildly elastic vocal range and steely command of that range.

The venerable B.B. King closed yesterday's festivities. At 81, King has given up a bit of his playing edge, but more than compensates with a persona that is both towering and affable. And just when you started to think that B.B.'s better days were behind him, he let loose a solo of the sort he did on a revved-up arrangement of "When Loves Come to Town" that makes it clear why King still wears the crown.

ART: PHOTO

CUTLINE: Dave Brubeck joined in his sons' band at Newport.