McCorkle: In Touch With Feelings

Although Susannah McCorkle’s repertoire includes plenty of songs from the ‘30s and ‘40s, the singer is adamant that she’s not stuck in the past--artistically or personally.

“I’m a now woman, a contemporary, thinking, reflecting woman who has benefited from women’s lib, who has a lot more freedom of expression and opportunities to be myself,” says the New York-based, self-described jazz-pop vocalist who appears Wednesday through next Saturday at the Catalina Bar & Grill in Hollywood.

McCorkle, whose most recent album is “I’ll Take Romance” on Concord Jazz Records, cherishes older songs. But coming across a contemporary song that she likes gives her a charge. “They’re harder to find, so it’s more of a score for me when I come across a tune like Billy Joel’s ‘New York State of Mind’ or Rupert Holmes’ ‘The People That You Never Get to Love,’ “she says. “I like tunes like those that reflect our times, talk about what we’re going through now.”

McCorkle says she’s at her best delivering dramatic, sad songs that tell a story. “Those songs go to the bottom of my soul,” she says. “They allow me to give more of myself, make me feel well used as an artist. It’s wonderful to have a song put you in touch with your feelings, make poetry out of your sadness.”

But don’t think a McCorkle performance is just for tears and handkerchiefs. There are far more upbeat and happy tunes in her shows than sad ones. “I love to make people laugh,” she says. “Besides, if you do a down, down show, then those sad songs won’t have anything for contrast and they won’t come to life.”

The self-taught McCorkle, a native of Berkeley who began her vocal career in 1972, says she’s on a mission: to keep intimate singing alive. Despite the recent successes of Natalie Cole and others, she feels the style “is going to die if more young singers don’t take it up.

“There’s so little incentive. Most record companies would like to relegate this style to the nostalgia bin.”

Critic’s Choice: Saxophonist Bob Cooper is living proof that not only red wine gets better with age. The 66-year-old Cooper, who first broke into jazz prominence with Stan Kenton’s orchestra in the late ‘40s and then with Howard Rumsey’s Hermosa Beach-based Lighthouse All-Stars in the ‘50s, spent much of the next two decades out of the limelight, working in the Los Angeles recording studios.

Cooper is back on the jazz beat, performing tonight with his quartet at Chadney’s in Burbank. The saxophonist--he is featured along with fellow tenorman Pete Christlieb on the just-out album, “Mosaic” on Capri Records--has a tone that extends to a room’s corners like a velvety fog. Cooper’s ideas are snappy, too--a mix of swing and be-bop phrases that come out in a most singular manner.