Lesley Byers and the Jazz Cats: A Slick Chick

From the name of the album and group I was expecting to hear from Lesley Byers and the Jazz Cats something along the lines of Keely Smith with Louis Prima and Sam Butera's Witnesses, but Byers and her quintet of capable Windy City sidemen offer a more straight-ahead brand of Jazz that's as well-crafted as it is pleasurable. Byers is a bright, amiable singer who must be even more charming to see than merely to hear. One can readily sense her remarkable vitality and enthusiasm for what she does, and there's no doubt that Byers knows how to sell a lyric. As a bonus, her articulation is so clear and precise that almost every syllable is sharply defined and comprehensible, which isn't always true of contemporary singers, some of whom, it must be said, seem more interested in showing off than in telling a story, which is what a singer should do (for a splendid example of how to narrate one properly, listen to Byers on Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies"). For her third album as leader, she has chosen five popular works from the Great American Song Book to complement such swing-oriented fare as "Hit That Jive Jack," "A Slick Chick" and "Mama (He Treats Your Daughter Mean)." Byers is persuasively forlorn on "Black Coffee" an scats with assurance on the Ellington novelty tune "Bli-Blip." Another highlight is the clever "rise-to-stardom" opus, "Big Time." There's one instrumental track, Lester Young's peppery "Lester Leaps In." Tenor Ed Enright, whose name I'd seen before as a writer for (I think) Down Beat magazine, solos on that one with guitarist Zvonimir Tot and drummer Deric Perry. Elsewhere, the main soloists are Enright (on tenor or baritone) and pianist John Proulx. Even though the playing time is a modest forty minutes and change, almost all of them are rewarding. In sum, an ultra-classy caper by a super-hip (and slick) chick.

Contact:Lesley Picchietti Byers, 847-266-7509. Fax 847-266-9873; e-mail [email protected]. Web site, www.lesleybyers.com