The Signal's Stephen K. Peeples -- Playboy Jazz Fest 2005

Grammys in 1997 for "Ella," her tribute to mentor and primary singing and scatting influence Ella Fitzgerald. Saturday's songs included "Don't Get Sassy" and "Fingers" by Faddis and the band, who then introduced Bridgewater for Fitzgerald's "Lady Be Good," the Antonio Carlos Jobim samba "Quiet Nights," a very jazzy reading of Kurt Weill's "The Alabama Song" (rockers may recall The Doors' version - "Show me the way to the next whisky bar..."), "Thad's Blues" and "A Child is Born," one of Jones' best-known compositions.

Bridgewater performed the last song with Jones' 2-year-old granddaughter, Samora Jones, on her hip, also noting her former husband, Cecil Bridgewater, was a player in the Orchestra's trumpet section.

Bridgewater, Faddis and the Orchestra received a standing ovation from the audience, including Hefner, who caught the show from his front-and-center box, surrounded by beauteous Playmates and sporting a yacht captain's hat to keep a cool head in the afternoon sun.

"Thad has come back in the guise of this child," Bridgewater said backstage after the set.

With this performance behind her now, and a five-year run channeling Ella, Bridgewater said she was ready to re-establish her own musical identity. Her next album, "J'ai Deux Amours" ("Two Loves Have I") is a collection of French love songs that "separate the women from the girls," as she put it.

After that, Bridgewater plans to record in Mali. "My musical roots are in Africa," she said. "I've always been fascinated by rhythms - scatting is very rhythmic - and different time signatures." After nearly 40 years in jazz, Bridgewater remains, as she says, "a risk-taker."

Sunday's high points were many, but daKAH Hip-Hop Orchestra, the Saxophone Summit and George Benson were the real standouts to these ears.

Another Saturday performance also brought the past squarely into the present: the set by the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra Legacy, with trumpeter Jon Faddis directing and Dee Dee Bridgewater (pictured at left) on vocals. For a decade through 1976, the Orchestra was a Monday night fixture at New York's renowned Village Vanguard, and it toured the world until Jones and Lewis ended their partnership in 1979.

Bridgewater made her professional New York debut in 1972 as the Orchestra's lead vocalist, and has also performed and/or recorded with Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, Dizzy Gillespie and other giants of jazz. She starred in the Broadway production of "The Wiz," relocated to France in the '80s, and won a pair of

"I know he was there with us," DeFrancesco said.

"Jimmy always said that when he first heard me play, he knew I was second-best [laughs]," he said. "I was blessed that before he passed, Jimmy told me his legacy was in my hands. That's a compliment of the highest order. I definitely intend to carry that torch. Every note I play is an homage to him." Also special for DeFrancesco was playing for the first time with guitarist Burrell, a Grammy-winning legend in his own right (and founder of UCLA's jazz studies program) who played on many of Smith's best-known albums.

"I've idolized Kenny for years, because he's on all those records," DeFrancesco said. "Just to play with him live and hear the soul of every note he plays - lots of guys play lots of fancy stuff, but every note he plays counts.

"The way he played behind me, his comping -- it was Kenny Burrell, man. He was so soulful, it knocked me out."

"It was a thrill to make music with Joey and Herman and Billy," Burrell said backstage. "It's the first time this group has played together, but we had a great time. We had a lot of joy up there. I'm glad we dedicated it to [Smith]."

As far as DeFrancesco carrying Smith's torch, Burrell said, "I think he will. I think Joey's great. He really loved Jimmy Smith, and I really applaud that he's going to carry on Jimmy's legacy."

More than 35,000 music fans packed the Bowl to its brim Saturday and Sunday for the 27th annual weekend of jazz and camaraderie, and partied from the opening notes Saturday afternoon to well past the final notes Sunday night.

Many fans, especially those seated in the garden boxes in the front third of the audience, packed portable coolers with soft drinks, beer and wine, cheese, fruit and other assorted goodies to share with their boxmates.

The higher up in the seats one went, the more raucous the partying. All the way at the top, where house ushers feared to tread, more than a few groups of vipers were sharing reefers. Other fans sat in inflatable easy chairs, puffing on fat stogies and sipping spirits. Another group had a complete Hawaiian luau going, with barbecued pork and tropical drinks.

But as the years passed, he found his own voice and a balance between his vocal and instrumental sides.

In the latest of several Playboy Jazz Festival appearances, Benson's guitar-and-vocals single-note scats were masterful.

Benson had the house on its feet with his set-closing, vocals-only rendition of "The Greatest Love," which thankfully didn't veer into the schlock zone.

Echoing the sentiments of many fans, MC Eubanks heaped praise upon Benson as the artist left the stage: "I'd forgotten just how bad he is!"

The soundtrack for all this was a smorgasbord of performers who represented the many sides of jazz, from traditional big-band to small-combo bop and contemporary jazz, from Latin to experimental collisions of jazz with other genres, from scat vocalizing to soulful "smooth" jazz.

Saturday's bill opened with the Los Angeles Multi-School Jazz band directed by Reggie Andrews, followed by the L.A.-based Jazz Tap Ensemble and Caravan Project; legendary drummer Stix Hooper and his current group Viewpoint; organist Joey DeFrancesco with guitarist Kenny Burrell performing in tribute to the late Hammond B-3 master Jimmy Smith;

Sunday kicked off with the North Hollywood High School Jazz Band directed by Jonathan Kenion; fast-rising R&B/jazz singer Ledisi; Latin master Chico Hamilton & Euphoria; vibraphone icon Roy Ayers and his group; and the daKAH Hip-Hop Orchestra conducted by Double G, with special guest Lili Haydn on violin.

They were followed by The Heath Brothers featuring Jimmy on saxes and "Tootie" (Albert) on drums; Dr. John from N'awlins and his current quartet The Lower 911; Latin jazz legend Gilberto Santa Rosa; the Saxophone Summit featuring Dave Liebman, Joe Lovano and Joshua Redman; eight-time Grammy winning jazz/R&B guitarist/singer George Benson; and Gordon Goodwin's popular L.A.-based 18-piece Big Phat Band.
Kevin Eubanks, who gets weekends off his gig as music director of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," served as emcee for

Cuban bass godfather Israel "Cachao" Lopez with the Cineson All-Stars; tenor/soprano sax ace Joshua Redman and his Elastic Band; roots 'n' bluesman Keb' Mo'; the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra Legacy big band directed by Jon Faddis, with renowned jazz vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater; Ramsey Lewis' quartet; tenorman Boney James and his septet; and Grammy-winner Norman Brown's Summer Storm 2005 featuring R&B/smooth jazz singing stars Peabo Bryson and Brenda Russell with sax great Everette Harp.

the second year. Eubanks was affable and warm, but underprepared. His introductions and set-closing remarks were limited to variations on, "Ready for some more music? Give it up for......" Perhaps next year he'll do more prep and maybe have some notes handy, so his intros will be better.

Among the many Saturday highlights were the DeFrancesco/Burrell salute to Jimmy Smith, the "Boss of the B-3" and soul-jazz innovator who died unexpectedly in February. DeFrancesco, a member of Miles Davis' group in the '80s and more recently one of guitarist John McLaughlin's favorite collaborating partners, is widely considered Smith's heir apparent. With Kenny Burrell on guitar, Herman Riley blowing saxes and Billy Hart playing drums, tunes included Sonny Rollins' "Sonny Moon for Two," the Horace Silver ballad "I'll Close My Eyes," and the Smith classic "Back at the Chicken Shack."

Joey's father, organist Papa John DeFrancesco, introduced him to Smith, DeFrancesco said backstage after the set. "Jimmy was my dad's mentor," said Joey, who started playing organ at age 4. "Jimmy was the greatest jazz organist ever, one of the greatest musicians ever, and I knew him personally, so there was a lot of love on the stage today."

DeFrancesco recalled he met Smith in 1978. "I was 7, and he sat me down next to him on the organ bench. I saw him many times, all over the East Coast. My mom and dad were able to take me along because most of the places Jimmy played were restaurants, not nightclubs."

When originally booked late last year, this band was to have included Smith and DeFrancesco on a pair of B-3s. But after Smith's death, the set became a tribute to him.

Double G, daKAH's "daKonductor," directed the largest single group ever to play the Festival, at 60-plus members including musicians (electric, brass, strings), rappers, DJs and vocalists.

Midway during the set, Double G introduced jazz/rock violinist Lili Haydn, a Los Angeles Philharmonic alum who's also worked with Tom Petty, No Doubt, Porno for Pyros, Jimmy Page & Robert Plant, George Clinton and more.

Backed by the massive daKAH group, Haydn ripped the solos on a hair-raising version of the early Parliament/Funkadelic classic "Maggot Brain," and got the crowd on their feet for the day's first standing ovation.

"It felt good -- great to be a part of it," Haydn said later backstage, where she hung out to hear and see most of Sunday's other performers. "Double G and I have been fans of each other and had been trying to figure out how to collaborate. I've always had this thing about 'Maggot Brain' 'cause I've been playing it with George Clinton for a while, and Double G just said, 'Right on!' But it's a whole other thing to play it with the Orchestra."

Haydn noted a new version "Maggot Brain" will appear on her next album. "Double G and I reworked the arrangement he'd written to make it little more concise and more intense, and I recorded it [at Capitol Studios] with daKAH. It all came together great -- I'm really excited about it. There's more about it on my Web site, lilihaydn.com. I also have I have another tune I want to do with daKAH, so Double G and I will be doing some more collaborating."

The Saxophone Summit featured Dave Leibman (tenor and soprano), Joe Lovano (tenor) and, sitting in for an ailing Michael Brecker, Joshua Redman, who'd turned in a hot performance with his own group Saturday.

Redman is a young lion, and he was up to the challenge of trading measures with Leibman and Lovano, both well-established and highly influential sax masters, on a blistering set of straight-ahead and modern jazz, including

tunes by John Coltrane and originals by the headliners. Stellar backing from Phil Markowitz (piano), Cecil McBee (bass) and Billy Hart (drums) allowed the frontmen to fly on their solos. At set's end, though, Leibman flew highest, fastest and farthest out.

George Benson's was the best-received set Sunday night, as he performed tunes including "Turn Your Love Around," "This Masquerade" and "On Broadway."

Benson was already an influential jazz guitarist in 1976, when he shifted gears and sought a wider audience with his "Breezin'" album, his first with vocals. Initially, Benson's vocal tones and phrasing sounded too much like Stevie Wonder's, and as he achieved more success in R&B and pop, Benson played less jazz.

Exhausted but ebullient music fans filed out of the Bowl with their coolers in tow, sharing their favorite musical moments with each other.

One middle-aged woman remarked to a girlfriend, "I never thought I liked jazz, but I'm glad I came to this. I heard a lot of music I really liked. We're gonna go again next year, right?!?"

HAT TRICK -- The group of fans pictured at left, all from Los Angeles, beat the afternoon Bowl heat with wigged-out lids. They said they'd been attending the festival for 23 years.

BUNNY EARS -- The author and his muse, wife Nadine, sprouted bunny ears late Sunday night. (Photo: Phantom X)