Courtesy Hawaii international jazz festival, hand-tinted by Dean Sensui / dsensui@starbulletin.com

He da Mann

Legendary flutist Herbie Mann
embraces the world in his jazz

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By Seth Markow
smarkow@starbulletin.com

Way back when fusion was largely the province of nuclear physicists, flutist Herbie Mann was looking to integrate jazz with pop forms and the music of other cultures. Since the late '50s, West African, Brazilian, Japanese, Afro-Cuban, Middle Eastern and even Jamaican sounds have been heard in Mann's music, adding up to one of the most diverse bodies of work by a jazzman.

Born in Brooklyn, Mann began his career as a second-generation bebopper, doubling on tenor saxophone and making records with jazz greats such as Oscar Pettiford, Chet Baker, Tommy Flanagan and Jimmy Rowles. "Mann Alone," done for the Savoy label in 1957, was an audacious album of solo flute. On "Great Ideas of Western Mann," also from '57 but on the Riverside label, he played only bass clarinet, several years before Eric Dolphy brought wide exposure to that expressive but unwieldy instrument.

'Latin Jazz Night' at the Hawaii International Jazz Festival Featuring Herbie Mann, Eric Marienthal, Alex Han and the San Diego State University Big Band In concert: 7 tonight Place: Blaisdell Concert Hall Tickets: $20, $35 and $40 ($5 discount for Foodland Maika'i cardholders, military and seniors 65 and older). Student tickets are $5 with ID, for seats in the $20 ticket area. Call: 941-9974 Also: Tomorrow and Sunday at the Outrigger Wailea Resort on Maui

Like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie, Mann toured in the early '60s under the auspices of the State Department -- an African sojourn covered 15 countries, and after concerts in Brazil, he became one of the first to bring the bossa nova stateside. (Maybe it's time for a return to jazz diplomacy!) A 1961 performance in New York at the Village Gate was taped by Atlantic and gave him a huge hit with "Comin' Home Baby," a soulful classic.

The jazz side of Mann's stylistic equation has rarely been orthodox: During one especially popular period in the late '60s and early '70s, he had great soul/R&B rhythm sections out of Memphis or Alabama's Muscle Shoals studio, plus the way-out Sonny Sharrock or future blues-rock legend Duane Allman playing guitar. Rock, funk, reggae and even disco were touched on during the '70s, but for the last 15 years or so, he has concentrated on the music of modern Brazil -- sophisticated and nuanced, with rich chords and meaningful melodies.

Mann is a winning performer and masterful, lyrical improviser with a pure tone, solid rhythm and a contagious enthusiasm for beauty.

He has also founded the Prostate Cancer Awareness Music Foundation to address a malady he has been battling for the last five years.

Here's hoping the 72-year-old will draw new strength and energy from his appearance at the Hawaii International Jazz Festival tonight at the Blaisdell Concert Hall. He will be accompanied by pianist Dan Del Negro, guitarist Jimmy Funai, bassist Benny Rietveld (formerly with Miles Davis, now with Santana), drummer Noel Okimoto and the great Brazilian percussionist Carlinhos de Oliveira.

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