THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 24, 1996 TAG: 9606240001
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: MUSIC REVIEW
SOURCE: BY DAVID SIMPSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 63 lines
TROPICAL BREEZES swept the audience gathered Sunday for the Hampton Jazz Festival's finale. The winds were stirred not by an open door but by the evocative piano stylings of Ahmad Jamal, performing his trademark tune, ``Poinciana.''
Jamal and his trio (guitar, bass and drums) swung with intelligence and wit, giving the pop song a definitive jazz reading. His delicate treble figures sounded like ice tinkling in a cocktail glass, and he topped off the number with a torrent of tremolos.
Before that, the group performed a funky version of Freddie Hubbard's ``Little Sunflower'' and an ambitious, classical-sounding work called ``Feast,'' which Jamal was commissioned to write last year.
Jamal was followed by Rachelle Ferrell, a young singer acclaimed for her 6 1/2-octave range. While there's no arguing she has the pipes, she could use a lesson in restraint and taste. Her scatting, if you could call it that, was unimaginative at best. Her vocal emissions on ``Inchworm'' were nothing short of grotesque.
The audience didn't mind, though. They especially enjoyed her stream-of-consciousness reading of ``You Don't Know What Love Is,'' in which she sang a conversation between a man and a woman: ``What's that you say, baby? Come again?'' ``I guess you musta been watching the Olympics when I was tryin' to tell you how I felt.''
The crowd's favorite, however, was headliner Luther Vandross, who crooned his sweet-soul ballads on and on into infinity. As he worked his way through ``Going in Circles,'' ``Always and Forever'' and ``Superstar,'' he had merely to nod in the direction of a group of women fans and they would respond with screams, waving white handkerchiefs in surrender.
Saturday night, Chick Corea led an all-star band in a stunning tribute to Bud Powell, the pioneering bebop pianist who died in 1966. Corea, on piano, was joined by Roy Haynes on drums, Christian McBride on bass, Joshua Redman on sax and Wallace Roney on trumpet.
The group tore into Powell's ``Tempus Fugit,'' a minor-key bop workout. Roney blew ``inside'' the chords, worming way around within a narrow range, before leaping to a high note. Redman offered a passionate tenor solo, followed by a nimble bass break from McBride. Then Corea and Haynes took the tune home, swapping dramatic eight-bar solos.
Herbie Hancock, another piano whiz, led his quartet in a mostly acoustic setting of what he dubbed ``new standards'' - as if Kurt Cobain and Prince were the Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael of our era. It's a provocative idea, which Hancock's group explored with mixed results.
The group's version of Prince's ``Thieves in the Temple'' culminated in an over-long soprano sax solo of trite, strung-together riffs. On the other hand, Stevie Wonder's ``You Got It Bad Girl'' was a revelation: A nice, cooking arrangement included a burning tenor sax solo and a drumming display that fairly threw sparks. Hancock was in prime form, playing ebullient single lines and colorful chord voicings.
On the pop front, saxman David Sanborn and his electric band came out with a slick program of funk, blues and ballads. Sanborn held the crowd in thrall with his fat, soulful tone on ``Benny.''
And what's a jazz festival without a little bump and grind? R&B diva Chaka Khan rocked the coliseum with a sexy, ingratiating performance of favorites including ``This Is My Night,'' ``You've Got the Love'' and ``I'm a Woman.'' As if we hadn't noticed. by CNB