Tierney Sutton, "i'm With The Band"

"I'm With the Band," the title of Tierney Sutton's fifth CD and first live recording for Telarc, is no mere boast. Not unlike her vocal jazz foremother Betty Carter, the Los Angeles-based Sutton functions as a band leader who just happens to be a singer. She's a musician's singer, as fully integrated into the proceedings as the expert instrumentalists she's chosen, essentially the same trio she's worked with for a dozen years or so.

Of course, the USC voice teacher isn't just another crooner with good looks and a surplus of stylish sophistication: Sutton's voice is full, supple, marked by pitch-perfect intonation and capable of the kind of show-stopping acrobatics that she employs ever so tastefully time and again here.

This time, the singer offers an assorted collection of cherished standards, giving a fresh spin to each one. She charms the 16-song set open with the wordless a cappella intro to "Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise," riding over the tricked-up piano figure of the verses, turning in a little rhythmic tugging and pulling with the band, and scatting a few bars before returning to the feeling of the intro.

She elongates her syllables on "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea," aptly playing the part of an emotionally tortured lover over a soundscape that shifts from bluesy shuffle to jaunty swing; and invests the solemn "If I Loved You" with genuine heartbreak. "Blue Skies" goes the way of slow and haunting, an eerie lament from a troubled soul; and "The Lady is a Tramp" opens in an understated fashion, closing on notes of intensity and fury and meaning that should have been impossible with the vintage Rodgers and Hart tune at this late date.

There are many highlights here and 'nary a misstep. "I'm With the Band," built on wonderfully creative, well-played ensemble arrangements, brings together the experimental/interpretive directions of Cassandra Wilson and Patricia Barber with the chops and instincts of a pure-jazz singer; it's a shoo-in for a place on many a jazz critics' top 10 list at year's end.