JAZZ REVIEW : Ballads Are High Point for Jackie & Roy

Jackie Cain was the Joan Baez of be-bop--her high, cool voice soaring above the busy rhythms of a fast-moving instrumental world. And she could scat, as well. In fact, for most of her career, Cain’s superb, ballad-singing skills were largely left in the shadow of the popular bop vocals that were the trademark of Jackie & Roy, the scat-singing duo she has led with her husband, pianist-singer Roy Kral, for more than 40 years.

In the last decade or so, however, Cain’s ballads have happily become a far greater part of the pair’s performances. Friday night at the Jazz Bakery, in the first set of a weekend booking, the highlights were almost all generated by Cain’s readings of standards such as “More Than You Know” and “In a Sentimental Mood.” In each, her capacity to blend warm, musical phrasing with articulate story-telling and an easy, rhythmic flow brilliantly illustrated mature jazz-based singing at its best.

Which is not to minimize Jackie & Roy’s irrepressible scat vocals--from the bouncy “Cheerful Little Earful” to a harmonically lush rendering of Dave Brubeck’s “The Duke.” Nobody does this kind of vocalese with a greater sense of buoyant enthusiasm and careful attention to musical detail. But the creative enrichment provided by Cain’s vocals adds an elegant enhancement to an already classic jazz act. Too bad Jackie & Roy weren’t here for at least a full week.