A musical original, he refreshes the standards

Jazz singer JD Walter opened his set Monday at the Jazz Bakery with what he described as a “derangement” of the standard “It Never Entered My Mind.” The word was intended as a pun, of course, Walter’s way of describing his method of “de-arranging” familiar material into entirely new musical entities.

He wasn’t kidding. Rather than mess with any postmodern deconstruction, Walter simply started with fragments that had no immediately noticeable connection with the song. Using elements of scat phrasing, bits and pieces of lyrics, an occasional reference to melody, he eventually wound up with a recognizable overview of “It Never Entered My Mind.” But, even at that, harmonies were skewed, the rhythm shifted and the melody found its own life.

Walter dealt similarly with another pair of standards -- “If I Should Lose You” and “Never Let Me Go” --sometimes homing in on the original songs, sometimes dancing freely around their outer edges. Like Bobby McFerrin, Mark Murphy and Rhiannon, Walters is reshaping what jazz singing is all about. He is opening up familiar material to the most adventurous kinds of interpretation, while continuing to engage and entertain his audiences.

One of the best examples was his solo rendering of James Taylor’s “Shower the People.” Using a combination of electronic devices, Walter created a gorgeously self-harmonized version of the song, replete with a low-note, vocal bass line. As a technical feat it was remarkable; as a musical performance, it was even better.

Walter, who was backed superbly by pianist Orrin Evans and (remarkably) by 17-year-old drummer Justin Faulkner, was making his L.A. debut -- a reflection of his relatively low visibility on the music business radar. And that’s a shame, since he is an original in an art overpopulated with copycats.