JAZZ REVIEW : A TREASURE CALLED ERNESTINE ANDERSON

Honest-to-goodness, real-life jazz singing is almost as rare these days as a nickel cup of coffee. Oh sure, there’s plenty of jazz-influenced, jazz-based, jazz-styled singing (some of it very good, to be sure), and maybe an excess of vocals and shooby-do.

But there are far too few remaining practitioners of the ancient and honorable art of singing good songs with the lift, the swing and the rare and subtle blending of music and emotion that characterizes the work of the best jazz improvisers.

All of which made last week’s engagement by singer Ernestine Anderson at Catalina’s Bar and Grill such a special occasion.

Her opening set Friday night started with a burst of pure jazz energy that immediately identified her as a performer who can proudly wear the label of “jazz singer.”

“You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To” was typical, with Anderson’s first chorus revealing the deceptively simple elements of her craft: warm, clearly enunciated tone, a good feeling for the song’s story and, most important of all, an ability to skim across the upbeats of the rhythm with the improvisational grace and ease of a vocalized Lester Young.

Anderson’s strikingly strong sense of phrasing--she never pushes too hard, never stretches a song beyond its natural limits--was well illustrated by a New York City medley of “Autumn in New York,” “(I’m in a) New York State of Mind” and “Take the ‘A’ Train,” in which she moved easily from the cool jazz balladry of the first two titles to the sweaty urban heat of the Ellington/Strayhorn classic.

Anderson’s too-short booking at the Catalina ended Sunday night. She was accompanied by the smoothly supportive rhythm trio of Frank Collett on piano, Bob Maize on bass and Ted Hawke on drums.