A Couple of Singers Worth Talking About

The easiest way to generate some differences of opinion in a group of jazz fans is to start a conversation about jazz singing.

Listeners who can agree upon the essential merits of such dramatically diverse players as, say, Johnny Hodges, Lee Konitz and Ornette Coleman can be equally divided over the comparative virtues of, to name only a few, Lee Wiley, Sheila Jordan and Nancy Wilson.

Recordings by two talented young performers--Diana Krall, 32, and Kitty Margolis, 41--offer cases in point.

Singer-pianist Krall has been praised by many since her emergence four years ago as a first-rate singer with her 1993 album “Stepping Out.” But she has also been criticized for what some observers consider to be a callow approach to her vocal interpretations.

It’s hard to imagine how the word “callow” could be applied to a performer who can sing with the rich, mellow sound and the solid sense of rhythm that Krall reveals in this latest release, a mellow collection of standards. Working with the minimal backing of her own piano, Russell Malone’s guitar and Christian McBride’s bass, Krall recalls the crisp articulate phrasing of Carmen McRae mixed with the easy flow of Nat King Cole.

On the slower numbers--”They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” “Ghost of a Chance,” “I Miss You So” and a particularly effective “Gentle Rain”--she sticks with storytelling, caressing the lyrics and using her lush timbre at the service of the lyrics. She tackles Dave Frishberg’s whimsical “Peel Me a Grape” with appropriate lightheartedness and uses her stellar accompanists--listen to McBride’s bass on “My Love”--with great effectiveness.

Krall is still a young artist in the process of evolving as a jazz singer (her first goal was to be a jazz pianist). But her progress has been so rapid on the past two albums that her future looks bright and promising.

Margolis is not nearly as well known as Krall (although she is a staple of the important San Francisco jazz scene), but she is no less talented. Working with a solid Bay Area rhythm section--Mike Spiro, percussion; Brad Buethe, guitar; Peter Barshay, bass; Scott Morris, drums; Spencer Allen, keyboards--as well as trumpeter Roy Hargrove and singer Charles Brown, Margolis touches every base in this solid collection of contemporary vocal jazz.

Her great diversity, in fact, could mistakenly be off-putting to fans who like their jazz straight up, without the twist. Equally comfortable with ballads and up-tempo numbers, an effective scat singer and a first-rate storyteller, Margolis brings imagination and a wide open sense of wonder to everything she sings.

The opening track, “Getting to Know You,’ begins with odd-sounding, unintelligible vocal overdubs--a kind of audio corollary to the message of the words. The often overdone “Fever” is rendered in offbeat fashion in 7/4 meter. And blues singer Brown is brought in to partner in the un-blues-like setting of “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly.”

Margolis’ presence on the relatively small Mad Kat label (which she founded with another San Francisco singer, Madeline Eastman) has somewhat limited her visibility. But she is a first-rate artist who deserves to be heard. More information is available on her engaging Web site, at https://www.kittymargolis.com

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good, recommended), four stars (excellent).