JAZZ REVIEW : Carter’s Vocal Improvisations Give New Slant to Standards

Betty Carter was as good as her word Tuesday night at Catalina Bar & Grill. She said last week that she would make one of her rare Los Angeles appearances with yet another group of hot young players, and that’s precisely what she did.

It would be a mistake, however, to only focus on Carter’s admirable work with her young musicians--important as it is, and fine as they are. Even more notable was her own performance. Now at the peak of her skills, Carter instantly defined why she is almost universally recognized as the most remarkable female jazz singer in the world.

Although her program was based on standards--”Sometimes I’m Happy,” “Long Ago and Far Away,” “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire,” among them--her manipulation of the material was dazzling. Carter blends a spoken-sung phrasing that swoops in and around the melody with rhythmic scat syllables and sudden explosions of high and low notes.

It is not jazz singing in the Fitzgerald-Vaughan tradition, even though it clearly flows from that source. It is, instead, a new--and, for some, controversial--approach to vocal improvisation. At its best, as it was for all of Carter’s too-brief set, it is one of the most provocative and fascinating sounds in contemporary jazz.

If her ensemble--pianist Xavier Davis, 21; tenor saxophonist Mark Shim, 21; bassist Matt Hughes, 20, and drummer Will Terrill, 21--was short in years, it had no diminution in talent. And, in Shim, she has discovered a musician who has the potential to become a major artist. Although he looks barely old enough to vote, his playing had a rich, resonance and driving momentum reminiscent of a mature Ben Webster. Remember the name: Mark Shim.

Carter played mother hen with her gifted brood, happily stalking the stage as she supervised the proceedings for a delighted audience. Offering a word of encouragement here, a smile there, an occasional frown and a flowing, rhythmic body language, Carter almost visibly molded the music as it unfolded. Far from the familiar image of a singer with a backup group, she was more like a vocal Duke Ellington, working and shaping her players into a kind of collectively expressive instrument.

* Betty Carter and her quartet at Catalina Bar & Grill through Sunday. 1640 N. Cahuenga Blvd., (213) 466-2210. $12 cover tonight and Sunday, $15 cover Friday and Saturday, with two-drink minimum. Carter performs two shows nightly, at 8:30 and 10:30.