Sheila Jordan’s voice shines in Santa Monica

There are jazz singers and there are jazz singers. And then there’s Sheila Jordan. And the very fact that one can describe her as a unique musical entity may be the best explanation of what is so special about her art.

The New Yorker made one of her rare visits to the Southland this week, in part to teach some seminars and some individual students, in part to perform Thursday at the Vic in Santa Monica. Working with the sterling trio of pianist Alan Pasqua, bassist Darek Oles and drummer Tim Pleasant, singing two consecutive full-house sets, she was a marvel, balancing inventive musical clarity with a challenging choice of material and presenting it with wit, humor and a trace of poignant memory.

As she frequently does, Jordan, 76, stressed her youthful fascination with alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, whom she heard when she was a teenager, and with the musical challenges of bebop. Her scat choruses on “It’s You or No One” and, especially, a tribute to Parker that included her own tune “For Bird,” combined with his melodically complex “Quasimodo,” were authoritative displays of harmonically driven, vocal improvising.

Other numbers -- a touching rendering of “Haunted Heart” (with a lovely Pasqua solo), an arching duet with Oles on “Baltimore Oriole,” delightful versions of “Hum Drum Blues” and “Dat Dere” -- were handled with a deceptively easygoing mastery of the connection between melody and lyrics.

But if there was any single aspect of Jordan’s performance that defined her art, one that should have been carefully observed by the many singers in the audience, it was her utter musical honesty, the constant joy of new discovery that invested everything she sang. That and -- perhaps most important of all -- her enviable capacity to remain both present and comfortable with who she is and what she does.