JAZZ REVIEW : Jordan’s Best Is Worth Wait

The story of Sheila Jordan, who opened Thursday and closes Sunday at Catalina Bar & Grill, is the stuff of legend.

Befriended by Bird, tutored by Tristano--she saw and heard it all back in New York’s Birdland era. You hear it in her voice when she brings a hip sensitivity to everything from “Body and Soul” (singing the almost-forgotten verse) to the 1948 ballad “Haunted Heart.”

More overtly jazz-oriented were the up-tempos, on which Jordan was inclined to sing the first chorus as if it were a second chorus--variations, that is, without first letting us hear the theme. Almost nobody in the room knew how “If I Had You,” written in 1928, sounded originally. Jordan’s jazz inclinations led to a profusion of scat interludes, during which she at least sings on the right changes. Still, the highlight of her set, as always, was her autobiography, sung to the blues form, seemingly spontaneous, telling the story of her childhood and adult traumas.

She was aided by the piano solos and arrangements of Alan Broadbent. Broadbent’s solo in “Haunted Heart” was a harmonic and lyrical delight. His accompanists were Pautter Smith on bass and Billy Mintz on drums.

Jordan has neither the strongest nor the most technically flawless of voices, but her best moments--of which there were many Thursday--were truly worth waiting for.