Hadda Brooks Wins Over the Young Crowd

Back in the late ‘40s, when Hadda Brooks played her vampy cocktail blues at such plush L.A. nightclubs as Perino’s, audiences shut up and listened. On Wednesday, the young crowd at Lucky Seven proved somewhat less disciplined, as chatter never quite ceased during the opening night of the singer-pianist’s monthlong weekly residency.

But the noise never fazed the elegant, 82-year-old Boyle Heights native. Accompanied by “the Senator,” her 76-year-old stand-up bassist, Eugene Wright, she played two brief sets of piano ballads and boogies from her heyday, many of which appear on the new retrospective album “I’ve Got News for You” (due Tuesday). She used the intimate setting to her advantage, and the kids didn’t stand a chance.

At times she struck an abrupt note on the piano, then walked among the tables while continuing to sing. She even got the crowd singing along. Yet she didn’t need such flirtations to carry the act. Brooks is a nimble, classically trained pianist who’s probably worked out every nuance of her material but still gave it real feeling. At once coquettish and sophisticated, she crooned such classics as “Dream” with languid, blues-tinged phrasings that maximized the romantic drama.

At night’s end, the crowd offered not the half-attentive applause one anticipated, but an enthusiastic standing ovation. Brooks proved that a half-century later, she still commands attention.

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* Hadda Brooks, Wednesdays in March at Lucky Seven, 1610 N. Vine St., 9 p.m. No cover charge. (323) 463-7777.