The July 22 all-star San Diego concert honoring Mundell Lowe is being billed as a birthday celebration. But the show, which will air globally as a "Jazz Live" radio Internet broadcast on KSDS-FM Jazz 88.3 (www.jazz88online.org/), is also a musical love fest for this esteemed jazz guitar great, who counts Billie Holiday, Lester Young and Charles Mingus among the many luminaries with whom he's collaborated.

"I'm a huge fan of Mundell's," said ace bassist Bob Magnusson, who will share bass duties with Rob Thorsen at Tuesday's show.

"I got to work with a lot of that generation of guitarists — Joe Pass, Laurindo Almeida, Charlie Byrd — and Mundell is my favorite. He plays the fewest notes of all of them. But he has the best feel, rhythmically, and the best sound, musically, and he always chooses the most melodic lines. He's also an amazing composer and a wonderful arranger."

Those sentiments were seconded by veteran guitarist Jaime Valle, who organized the tribute and is one of Lowe's musical partners.

"I've learned more from Mundy in one year about how to play the guitar, harmonic ideas and tone than I have in my life," said Valle, who did a concert tour of Europe with Lowe last fall and is now completing a duo album with him.

"He's a walking encyclopedia of jazz and such a great human being. It's amazing to play with him — and very humbling."

The concert will feature two other nationally prominent musicians, flutist Holly Hofmann and pianist Mike Wofford, who are happy to count Lowe as a longtime friend and musical partner. Also on the bill are guitar stars Kenny Burrell, Russell Malone and Ron Eschete.

"Russell is flying in from New York, Kenny from Los Angeles, and everyone is coming in at their own expense," Valle said. "I've had so many other musicians offering to play that I had to turn several people down, because we've only got 105 minutes on the air for the KSDS broadcast."

The concert's format will feature mini-sets by each artist. It will culminate with a grand finale featuring all of the musicians and Lowe, who speaks with the same combination of warmth and careful consideration that characterizes his impeccable guitar work.

"Jaime kind of put the framework around this and it feels comfortable," Lowe said. "He's a very special human being. And Holly and Mike will be there, so that's a tremendous advantage. I think each player will (do) 15 to 20 minutes. They'll bring me out near the end, and we'll all whoop and shout in a blaze of glory."

Long overdue for such a tribute concert, Lowe is a vital part of jazz history who refuses to rest on his laurels and still practices at least an hour a day. As eclectic as he is accomplished, he has recorded with everyone from Ella Fitzgerald, Ben Webster and Sarah Vaughan to such pop and R&B stars as Jackie Wilson, King Curtis and the Everly Brothers.

"The people I was blessed to work with, like Charlie Parker, didn't want a competition," Lowe said. "It was such a wonderful time to live; all the people you admired, we were all growing up together. It was a great life — it still is."

Born in Mississippi, Lowe was barely a teenager when he started working in various jazz bands on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. At 17, he spent half a year playing with Pee Wee King on the Grand Ole Opry radio show in Nashville.

After being discharged from the Army in 1945, Lowe settled in New York, where he joined Ray McKinley's big band. It was the start of an illustrious career that would see him shine not only as a solo artist and first-call accompanist, but also as a top composer for feature films and TV. In the 1980s, he served as the musical director for the Monterey Jazz Festival.

Retirement, or anything close to it, remains an alien notion to Lowe, who lives in San Diego with his wife, noted singer Betty Bennett.

"Well, you know what they say about old beboppers," he said. "We don't pass away, we just write another tune."

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