MANN GOES GOURMET

Blues, bossa nova and funk have been the meat and potatoes of flutist Herbie Mann’s act since he first reached out to a crossover audience 20 years ago with “Comin’ Home Baby.” Performing with a hard-rocking quartet at Concerts by the Sea on Friday night, he showed little interest in a change of musical diet. What started out as jazz fast food has evolved into musical haute cuisine with subtle refinements of attitude, emphasis and emotion.

On “Blues Come in All Colors, Sizes and Shapes,” guitarist O’Donel Levy set the pace with a funk-drenched variation, fleet and rich in harmonic clusters. Another crisply swinging piece, “Keep the Spirits Singing” (from Mann’s new Atlantic Album, “See Through Spirits”), revealed vintage Mann flute playing, replete with grunted accents and percussively tongued rhythmic phrases.

An Italian ballad, “Piu Sua,” played with a passionately urgent underpinning by the rhythm section, brought out Mann’s best solo of the night. Starting with long, sensuous held notes, he gradually broke up his melodic flow, jabbing and parrying his phrases into a climax of emotional color and sound that was jazz improvisation at its world-class best.