The first thing everyone noticed at “Piano Masters Salute Piano Legends,” on the second night of the 2005 JVC Jazz Festival, was the amazing sound of the instrument itself in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater. This was the first piano-oriented event I’d heard at Rose, and it was hard not to be blown away by the clarity of the sound. Every note was rich and resonant and perfectly clear; it made me wish next week’s Keith Jarrett Trio recital were anyplace but Carnegie Hall, the home of the unnecessary reverb.

The idea behind Wednesday’s concert, produced by Mark Morganelli and Jazz Forum Arts, was to combine contemporary piano “masters” with the music of great piano “legends.” The concept, as Alfred Hitchcock would say, was just the “Macguffin” for some great playing, and not rigidly held to. Each of the four pianists played one or two pieces unaccompanied, then were joined by Ray Drummond on bass and Al Foster on drums for several more numbers.

Uri Caine started the show with one original and three tunes associated with Bill Evans (two were actually composed by him). For the most part, he played with Evans’s strong rhythmic drive but without trying to ape his trademark lyricism. “Peri’s Scope” was a fast and boppy piece, which Mr. Caine played with infectious cheerfulness. “Blue in Green” was more introverted and understated, but still catchy. After Johnny Carisi’s “Israel,” Mr. Caine’s own “Othello” used a complicated intro to open the door into a simple, catchy riff.

Kenny Barron’s five brief selections were the highlight of the evening. Rather than focus on one “legend,” he started with a standard, George Bassman’s “Getting Sentimental Over You,” interpreted with a nod toward Thelonious Monk’s wide-open spaces and itchy chromaticisms. The long, long melody of Tommy Wolfe’s “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most” was rendered in a single beautiful chorus. Mr. Barron seamlessly traversed the boundaries between interpretation and improvisation, playing the tune as written, then veering off into variations, then returning again to the song.

Mr. Barron treated Duke Ellington’s “Prelude to a Kiss” to a bossa-nova vacation, then rendered Monk’s “Ask Me Now” in a way that played up the tune’s similarity to both “A Handful of Stars” and “Blue Gardenia.” The composer must have been a Nat King Cole fan. He closed with his own “Cook’s Bay” (from “Spirit Song”), a dreamy tropical original that seems tailor-made for one of those BET presentations of a Caribbean jazz festival.

Geri Allen took us to the same place with “Little One,” from Herbie Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage” (as well as Miles Davis’s “ESP.” Ms. Allen interpreted it in a spare, simplistic manner, which made me think of Mr. Hancock’s 1968 “Speak Like a Child.” She used the treble end of the keyboard to devise a tinny, metallic sound, which meshed perfectly with the high pings of Al Foster’s cymbals. She closed with “Northern Lights,” a rudimentary and engaging 12-bar blues by her husband, trumpeter Wallace Roney.

Randy Weston could be described as a “piano colossus” – next to him, the mighty instrument seemed like a toy by comparison. He capped the evening by treating us to a masterful collage of Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, stitched together with a fair amount of original music.

Starting solo, he traveled through unusual interpretations of “It Don’t Mean a Thing,” rendered in a Monkish minor, then slowly eased into “Mood Indigo.” He also worked in the famous vamp to “Subtle Slough (Just Squeeze Me).” By the time he got to “Caravan,” Mr. Drummond and Mr. Foster had tip-toed unnoticed onto the stage and joined him. He played the Ellington-Strayhorn “Blues To Be There,” but rather than wind up with a slow number, added the fast “C Jam Blues” as a more suitable closer.

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Across the hall from the Rose Theater, Dizzy’s is presenting a piano legend in the making in the prodigious, 18-year-old Russian immigrant billed only as Eldar. He is something to hear: His first number on Tuesday, an original, sounded like Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum, and McCoy Tyner all playing at once. He starts at the fastest tempo one can imagine, then doubles and quadruples that. This is a boy who plays like he’s getting paid by the note. He certainly has the technique; now it’s a matter figuring out what he wants to do with it.