Opinion: Everyone's Party

Jazz can often be a self-indulgent exercise. Think of it: a group of consummate musicologists on stage holding a private conversation, with each conversant striving to make a more complex point than the other.

Before long, an untrained listener can start to feel like an unwelcomed party guest.

This has never been the case with the Sag Harbor saxophonist Hal McKusick and his quartet, who put on their fifth concert in the Sag Harbor Jazz Festival Saturday at the Old Whalers Church. Welcoming back the trumpet legend Clark Terry for his second time as featured guest, Mr. McKusick and company put on a thoroughly enjoyable, and accessible, evening of jazz.

Anchored The Band

A stage full of poinsettias and a huge suspended wreath added a nice holiday touch to the room, which has become the festival's permanent home - "the Carnegie Hall of the East End," as the festival's co-organizer, Steven Fochios, put it.

The fact that it was Mr. Terry's birthday also advanced the festive mood. The jovial big-band veteran turned 76 on Saturday, so it was fitting the evening's encore would be a rendition of "Happy Birthday," sung by the entire audience.

Two and a half hours before that, Mr. McKusick kicked off the show with John Coltrane's "The Wise One," the type of slow, velvety number on which he thrives. As always, Mr. McKusick's sax lines were fluid, lyrical, familiar, and faithful to the melody. Letting the quartet's rhythm section toy with the improvisational fringes, Mr. McKusick, as anchorman, kept each of the night's numbers true to its character.

Delicate Brush Strokes

Bud Powell's "Time Waits" was next - another breathy ballad, featured in the movie "Round Midnight." It was raining outside, and the delicate brush work of the drummer Akira Tana made it sound like soft rain inside.

Mr. Tana was transfixing throughout, both in his playing and his presence. Each number brought out a different set of drum sticks - brushes, bamboo sticks, even a set with shakers at the end. On Duke Ellington's mystical "Night in Tunisia," he embellished its Latin feel by playing a rhythm entirely on the side of his floor tom-tom.

For those familiar with these concerts, "Night in Tunisia" was no surprise, nor was "Round Midnight." Mr. McKusick manages to pull them out in nearly every one of his shows here. Yet each time they get a different treatment. The addition of two Coltrane gems this time also helped keep it fresh.

Mr. Tana, the pianist Don Fried man, and the young bassist Sante Dibriano formed perhaps the tightest rhythm section Mr. McKusick has played with since the shows began. The three recently toured Japan together as a unit and later in the show got to shine with their own more free-form numbers.

Mr. Dibriano, the newest member of the quartet, endeared himself to the crowd with his bold solos and use of the bow on the slower ballads. His solo on "Round Midnight" was particularly stirring.

Mr. Friedman, a longtime collaborator with Mr. McKusick, played powerfully on keyboards. Using the melody as a take-off point, he brought each solo to its rightful peak, making the keyboard seem a mile long with his rolling scales. Mr. Tana was there to meet every rhythmic switch.

Ah! A Showman!

What the evening really needed, however, was a showman. Mr. Terry was more than happy to oblige. From the moment he was led on stage in his sharp, blue sport jacket, he had the stage presence of a jazz great. Wasting no time, he launched the quartet into a quick be-bop number by Charlie Parker, which he blew effortlessly on fluegelhorn.

Mr. Terry's honey smooth fluegelhorn and more muffled-sounding trumpet complemented each other well, especially during "On the Trail," where he held one in each hand and alternated phrases from each.

Introducing Ellington's "Mood Indigo," he told of how the song's name "really" originated: A cow of Duke's grandfather's happened to swallow some ink from a next-door farm and he, well, you can guess the rest. Despite the deliberately bad joke, the number was one of the night's strongest. Mr. Terry's muffled trumpet whispered the melody over the bass in the evening's quietest moment. The band chimed in on an easy-going swing beat, and then double-timed it, sparking a rollicking solo by Mr. Friedman, before bringing it to an equally quiet close.

Percy Heath, Too

Mr. Terry also showed off his vocal talent in a sassy blues song called "I Want a Little Girl." Mr. Terry held nothing back in his voice, which was surprisingly deep and full. He complemented it with a wonderfully raspy trumpet solo.

The audience got its own chance to sing - and did surprisingly beautifully - on the chorus to "Bye Bye Blackbird." A mini-rehearsal led beforehand by Mr. Terry helped.

Mr. McKusick returned afterward, this time joined by another special guest, the bassist and co-founder of the Modern Jazz Quartet, Percy Heath. Mr. Heath's straightforward groove took the band to a new level, and evoked some of the night's best solos - his own included - in the next two songs.

Mr. McKusick and Mr. Terry combined perfectly on the familiar strains of "Blue Monk," before Mr. Terry turned scatman for the final number.

Mr. Terry didn't stop when the music did. Instead he kept scatting and managed to carry on an entire conversation without any intelligible words. The audience was in hysterics. When it came time to sing "happy birthday, dear Clark . . . ," they meant it.