Julie Kelly Shows That Singing Deserves to Be Her Occupation

Singer Julie Kelly balances her time between singing and teaching. Given the uneven employment opportunities for the vast array of vocalists who have not achieved the visibility of Diana Krall or Jane Monheit, she generally teaches more than she performs.

And that’s unfortunate. Her performance at the Westin LAX Jazz Lobby on Thursday night was the work of a vocalist who deserves a wider hearing.

Kelly is an experienced singer, active since the mid-’70s, with four recordings released, including the recent “Into the Light.” Her instrumental training (she studied classical guitar) invests her interpretations with solid musicality, and a residence in Brazil in 1970 enables her to bring considerable authenticity to the Brazilian songs she frequently includes in her programs.

On Thursday, working with the accompaniment of pianist Tom Garvin, bassist John Heard, percussionist Brad Dutz and drummer Dick Weller, Kelly breezed her way through a program mixing standards, Brazilian tunes and a few unfamiliar but attractive items.

Kelly’s improvisational skills are generally presented most effectively when she uses the words and the melody of a song to generate imaginative, hard-swinging paraphrases, rather than in her pure scat singing. And she was at her best with a lighthearted rendering of the big-band hit song “Don’t Be That Way,” exploring the lyrics with the rhythmic urgency of a riffing brass section.

Her Brazilian songs “O Pato” and “Barquinho” were also delivered with buoyant, samba-tinged energy, aided immensely by Dutz’s spirited percussion. And in Alec Wilder’s “Blackberry Winter,” she came up with a lovely, lesser-known item, exploring its nostalgic phrases with a rich understanding of the song’s interior meaning.

Kelly was watched, in entranced fashion, by a pair of young girls, one of whom is a student of hers, seated at a front table. The connection, with its reminder of Kelly’s dual musical roles, provided an appealing image of the link between her roles as teacher and artist.