Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

An all-star ensemble performs the music of Don Pullen on Saturday evening at Jefferson Center's Shaftman Performance Hall in Roanoke.

Don Pullen was as accomplished and as acclaimed as any musician Roanoke produced.

He was one of the great jazz pianists of the late 20th century. He pounded the keys with fingers made of lightning bolts. Occasionally, he delivered forearm shivers to the keyboard, inducing disconsonant chords and phrases that sounded like shrieks.

They said blood had to be wiped off the keys after his rapid-fire glissandi, where he swept his right hand up and down the keyboard, as if trying to sand the ivory right off.

He played with the greats from Art Blakey to Charles Mingus. He backed sublimely gifted vocalists such as Ruth Brown, Nina Simone and Arthur Prysock. He recorded dozens of albums as a bandleader and sideman. Yet his hometown had never given him the kind of tribute he deserved until Saturday night — nearly 17 years after his death from lymphoma at age 53.

Saturday night's concert at Jefferson Center, dubbed "Another Reason to Celebrate: The Life and Music of Don Pullen," brought together an all-star lineup of jazz players which toured through some of Pullen's greatest works. But the night was really more like a big family reunion than a concert, as the sold-out audience of more than 800 included numerous Pullen relatives and friends, many who came from out of town to hear Pullen's music played live again.

Scores of people mingled before the show in the atrium, greeting one another with handshakes and hugs and admiring the exhibit of photographs that chronicled Pullen's life, from his youth in a segregated Roanoke to his jazz career, when he befriended the likes of Bill Cosby.

The quintet who headlined the show featured a major-league roster of contemporary jazz greats — one-time Pullen collaborator Hamiet Bluiett on baritone saxophone, Blue Note recording artist Jason Moran on keys, Grammy-winning bassist Christian McBride, versatile James Carter on saxes and flute and drummer Nasheet Waits.

Some of Pullen's forays into free jazz did not suit everyone's musical tastes, but the tribute band effortlessly glided from melodic to dissonant and back as it gave a tour of Pullen's work. The night began with a video that featured archive Pullen performances and an interview with Bluiett. Then the band opened with the 15-minute epic piece for which the concert was named.

Moran's solos were remarkably elegant and tight, even as he explored Pullen-esque stratospheric excursions. His solo "Gratitude" exhibited Pullen's penchant for carving up a simple, beautiful melody with atonal phrasings, arpeggios and tempo switches.

Pullen compositions "Sing Me a Song Everlasting" and "Song from the Old Country" gave each member room to improvise. "1529 Gunn Street" exploded with big band bravado and demonstrated Pullen's swing and be-bop influences.

The second set included a new poem written and read by Nikki Giovanni, who said Pullen once lived across the street from her in New York City. The music highlighted Pullen's work with the African Brazilian Connection and American Indian musicians and performers.