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	ANDY BEY The Singer and his Songs

Andy Bey just might be the best jazz singer alive. His opening set a week ago Wednesday before a packed house at Scullers was a masterful performance of controlled intensity, casual virtuosity, and imagination. Each time he went through a tune, the 65-year-old veteran sang it differently, bringing out a new shade of meaning with a subtle inflection of the words or reshaping of the melody. His rich, smooth, sensual baritone was the muscle and nerve of each song. "It’s Only a Paper Moon," which like most of the numbers in the first set is on his new American Song (Savoy), was his plaything. In the subdued opening chorus, he toyed gently with words and phrases, displacing notes here and there to tweak the melody. The second chorus he opened up to the blues, his voice bending and inflecting the words, giving them a knowing, down-home spin. "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" got a similar treatment.

Bey can also be a great storyteller, as he demonstrated on his straightforward, most unadorned version of "River Man." He can even scat. His soloing on the bebop classic "Cheryl" was reminiscent of great melodic trumpeters like Miles Davis and Kenny Dorham, as he delivered precise lyrical phrases in the midrange of his instrument with a muted, brassy luster. And the ballads "Never Let Me Go," "Midnight Sun," and "Some One To Watch over Me" glowed with romantic intensity.

Bey is a serviceable piano soloist, and his backing trio of bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa, drummer Jeremy Clemens, and guitarist Paul Meyers swung with self-effacing taste. But this was a showcase for the singer, and the songs he made his own.