An Instrumental Lesson in Singing by Sloane

Jazz singing, at its best, is part of the same musical spectrum that encompasses instrumental jazz. The parallels between the playing of Lester Young and the singing of Billie Holiday are obvious, as are the similarities of phrasing between Miles Davis and Shirley Horn.

Carol Sloane, who opened a six-night run at the Jazz Bakery on Tuesday, identifies a singer, Carmen McRae, as a primary influence. And while there are clear similarities to McRae in Sloane’s articulate approach to lyrics, there are also instrumental connections in her warm, sensual sound, reminiscent of the early, lyrical qualities of Stan Getz.

At 60, Sloane has had a checkered career. A surprise sensation at the 1961 Newport Jazz Festival, she moved erratically in and out of jazz visibility until her recording activities got into gear in the late ‘70s. Although she remains one of the lesser-known jazz vocal artists--at least to a wider audience--Sloane is now in her prime. Despite working with an unfamiliar rhythm section (pianist Lou Levy’s trio, with bassist Bob Maize and drummer Paul Kreivich) in an opening-night performance, she sounded superb.

She opened her set with standards--well-chosen items with attractive, often tricky, melody lines. “I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart” began with simply Sloane’s voice and Maize’s bass. It slipped easily into another Duke Ellington tune, “Do Nothing ‘Til You Hear From Me.” More unexpected was the old Tommy Dorsey theme song “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You,” a difficult melody for a singer and sung, beautifully, with the rarely heard verse.

Sloane was joined by trumpeter Harry “Sweets” Edison for the second part of her set--a replacement for trumpeter Clark Terry, whose emergency eye surgery forced a cancellation. Given the spontaneity of the pairing, the two worked well together on tunes such as “ ‘S Wonderful” and “I’ve Got the World on a String,” with Edison tossing instrumental and vocal asides around Sloane’s smooth singing. And in his solo passages, Edison’s characteristic style--in which riff-like melodic fragments are collected and repeated to create montage-like choruses--was in first-rate form.

But it was Sloane’s singing, a potent reminder of the connections between vocal and instrumental jazz, that made the performance a creative success and, for the moderate-sized, enthusiastic audience, an evening of fine, entertaining music.

* Carol Sloane at the Jazz Bakery through Sunday. 3233 Helms Ave., Culver City, (310) 271-9039. $20 admission Sunday at 8:30 and 10 p.m. $22 admission today and Saturday at 8:30 and 10 p.m.