Jazz Reviews : Oscar Peterson in Top Form at Hollywood Bowl

When Oscar Peterson plays “Soft Winds,” his trio blows it into a sirocco. Not that heat and intensity are the only emotions distilled by the Canadian piano master; they are simply the most devastatingly evident, as a receptive crowd of 10,109 discovered Wednesday evening at Hollywood Bowl.

If energy is Peterson’s heavy artillery, delicacy is his non-lethal weapon. While his technical prowess has made the most dramatic impact, the ability to conjure up sensitive webs of harmonic beauty has always been dexterously intermingled ever since he brought his formidable presence to this country 38 years ago.

On this occasion, there were many opportunities to observe the flying fingers of funk--in such numbers as a variant on the old 16-bar “Jada”--counterbalanced with examples, some of them unaccompanied, of his compositional creativity on a more cerebral level.

Peterson clearly is not out to sell records; not a word was spoken throughout the set. What was that beguiling waltz? How about the piece with the melody in fourths? And what does he call the one with the Bach-like movements? Some apparently were excerpts from his “Canadiana Suite.”

He has one of the most sympathetic small-group drummers in Bobby Durham, and a bassist, David Young, who proved equally nimble in supportive and solo capacities.

Except for a somewhat perfunctory Ellington medley toward the ending, this was top-grade Peterson all the way, and there are no higher grades.

Suffering from a cold, Jon Hendricks got through his opening set with apparent difficulty, sounding strained on his solo numbers.

The lyrics he has set over the years to masterworks by Ellington, Basie, Miles and Monk remain an enduring delight; however, he and his aides--wife Judith Hendricks, daughter Aria and Kevin Burke--were hampered not only by his condition but by an indifferent sound control that offered too much drums and unbalanced voices.

Aside from Hendricks’ interesting version of the Brazilian song “Estate,” the set consisted of long familiar favorites. The quartet was efficiently backed by the trio of pianist Danilo Perez.