by Eric Stevens

Shirley Horn, Roberta Flack, and Etta Jones have done our nation's capital proud in the female vocal category. We can now add 37 year old Michelle Walker to that list. She claimed she was nervous having to perform with her mentor, Mark Murphy, a big name in jazz for just over a half-century. Not only did she appear calm; she wowed the audience on October 22nd at the Roper Theater. But let's take things in order of occurrence.

The John Toomey Trio opened with Dave Brubeck's THE DUKE. The pianist/ODU professor continues to display delightful digitry, supported by the hard-swinging Jimmy Masters on bass and Howard Curtis on drums.

Mark, who opened this sparkling series several seasons ago, dazzled with his range, creative lines, and varied tones, which go from falsetto to bass. After his opener he scored with an original, DON'T I KNOW YOU FROM SOMEWHERE? Then came STOLEN MOMENTS.

Ellingtonia began with the gorgeous PRELUDE TO A KISS, with an exquisite solo by Toomey, followed by Mark. There followed a swinging medley of DON'T GET AROUND, SATIN DOLL, and SHINY STOCKINGS, which was written by (now) Chesapeake dweller Frank Foster. Although it's one of my favorite tunes, how did a Basie-standard get in a Duke medley? Well, who cares? It roared! MM then cleared the stage and sat at the keys to do DO NOTHING TIL YOU HEAR FROM ME.

Enter Miss Walker with a medley of two cool Cole Porter tunes, YOUÕD BE SO NICE TO COME HOME TO and EASY TO LOVE, which is not easy to sing. Next came two harder-to-sing ballads, SOPHISTICATED LADY and SENTIMENTAL MOOD. The lady molds a mood. Picture yourself ladling syrup from a pot. As it sifts downward it assumes different viscosities and huesÉall tempting. That's Michelle's voice.

MW then saluted her mother with an original, touching ballad. Also moving was the spoken lead-in to Duke's song about losing Billy Strayhorn, BLOOD COUNT. Strayhorn's TAKE THE "A" TRAIN was a duet, as was the closer, DUKE'S PLACE. The latter, actually C JAM BLUES has only two notes in its melody, but the duo was so hot that they jitterbugged at one point. That said it all.

Put these on your calendar: The day after Thanksgiving, organist Jimmy Smith joins guitarist Larry Coryell to paean the late Wes Montgomery; on January 28th, hilarious Ken Peplowski revisits Benny Goodman's 1938 Concert; on 2/11 Freddy Cole returns; and on March 4th Fathead Newman and singer-guitarist Frank D Rone remember Johnny Hartman. Each show is on a Friday at 8 PM. See you there.