Jimmy Scott
(Catalina Bar & Grill, Hollywood; 105 seats; $18 top)
Band: Kenichi Shimazu, Hilliard Greene, Brian Kirk.
His short, mournful pleas and long wails plaintively ask for love's return, the pain of his life so wrapped in song that an audience can't help but be absorbed. Scott climbs deep inside each song the way only the greatest of jazz instrumentalists have, producing one the most riveting and affecting shows around.
Scott, who sings in a falsetto (as a result of having never been through puberty), appeared headed for no more than a footnote in jazz singing less than a decade ago -- his records out of print, substance abuse the norm and his health deteriorating.
Actor Joe Pesci helped revive the singer's career with trips to Harlem to see him perform during the filming of "GoodFellas," which led to solid notices and a recording contract with Warner Bros.
His second disc, "Dream," a gorgeous, melancholic work that soothes like a hot bath, was responsible for only two songs in his set, yet the disc's gentle attitude permeated the entire evening.
Starting with Scott's incandescent reading of "All of Me," the singer kept things soft and warm, with a pliant trio led by the impeccably precise work of pianist Kenichi Shimazu and the potent solos of bassist Hilliard Greene.
Scott's phrases have a compelling tentativeness that conveys insecurity, dread and desperation, no matter how familiar the material: "All the Way, ""Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child."
The honesty in Scott's voice is beyond reproach; to hear him is to listen to pain. Even in a too-short 45-minute set, Jimmy Scott proves how very few true jazz singers there are.
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