Jon Hendricks and Company Live in Lugano

The best jazz singers are as versatile and perhaps even more daring than instrumentalists: Sarah Vaughan’s voice was often compared to Dizzy Gillespie’s trumpet, and Ella Fitzgerald could scat a rhythm as rich as any melodic sequence. Jon Hendricks has to be considered as one of the greats, and he demonstrates this theory perfectly: at one point he plays air double bass, singing the notes and showing some of the boldness and skill that gave him world renown.

Hendricks was a pioneer of vocalese, a style that added lyrics to popular jazz standards and replaced certain instruments with vocals. This is exactly what he does on several classics here, like “In Summer” (which used Bruno Martino’s “Estate” as source material), two Thelonious Monk tracks, the famous “Stardust,” which was popularized by the father of jazz, Louis Armstrong, and three tracks often played by the Count Basie Orchestra. It is a performance that oozes charm, showcasing a seasoned veteran who is joined by a stellar quartet, as well as his wife and daughter on vocals.