Gentlemen of Jazz

When the Modern Jazz Quartet was formed in 1952, it was a musical revelation. Bop, with its honks and squawks and dissonances, was at the height of its popularity. Dizzy Gillespie was king.

MJQ was a spin-off from Gillespie, but it offered not so much as a toot. No sax, no horn, no clarinet. Instead there was a clean, nearly transparent sound made by piano, vibraharp, bass and drum.

With the passage of time, the quartet --Pianist John Lewis, Bassist Percy Heath, Drummer Connie Kay and Vibraharpist Milt Jackson--became a phenomenon of a different sort. It stayed together for 22 years, longer than any other jazz ensemble. Last week, during an emotional yet curiously subdued evening at Manhattan's Avery Fisher Hall, the group confirmed that it was disbanding and gave a final concert.

Uncluttered Style. The selections were drawn from a repertory of more than 300 pieces, many by Composer Lewis, whose uncluttered keyboard probings set MJQ's style. Lewis etched an outline of Sigmund Romberg's Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise. One by one, cued only by instinct, his colleagues joined him: the genial Heath, eyes closed, his fingertips lightly brushing the strings, while Kay, the pulsemaker, fabricated a succinct beat ornamented by miniature percussive effects--rippling wind chimes. Jackson's keyboard work at the vibes, reminiscent of Art Tatum's quicksilver piano, provided the melodic keystone.

As Lewis and Jackson announced titles, Lewis losing his professorial calm and struggling visibly to control his voice, the program moved from MJQ interpretations of jazz standards and blues adaptations of Bach through its own classics--The Golden Striker, The Legendary Profile, Bags' Groove. An expanse of heads nodded rhythmically until a galloping accelerando brought the audience to their feet. The cliche goes that MJQ is a hybrid of jazz and chamber music. Indeed, in their dark business suits, the men looked too sensible to be jazz players. The crowd cheered, not because of virtuosity or precocity, but because MJQ is a throbbing extension of the blues main line that stretches back to the fields of Alabama.

Officially, the group is disbanding because its members want more leisure for family life. There are grumblings about insufficient money for playing 200 concerts a year. Heath described himself as netting a little less each year than a New York sanitation worker. Social and financial exigencies aside, human tensions have doubtless taken a toll. At a post-concert supper, the four guests of honor mingled politely, then submerged into separate pockets of gloom.

Kay, 47, the soft-spoken drummer, admitted that he had no immediate professional plans. Asked why the band was breaking up, Bass Player Heath, 51, replied in tones less mellow than his music. "It wasn't our fault," he said with a scowl.

"Mr. Jackson wants to be a bandleader."

In recent years, Jackson, 51, has devoted an increasing amount of tune to his own record commitments and freelance playing. His drive for a separate career illustrates a paradox of ensemble playing. Four men with enough talent and discipline to play as one usually want to be heard alone too. Lewis, 54, the composer-arranger, said emphatically that the break was permanent, but it is hard not to hope that the group will rejoin for records if not for concerts.

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