Also this issue: Once More, With Feeling After an 18-year break, Mission of Burma's Clint Conley returns with a brand-new band. -Sam Adams Local Land-Marc One of the greatest living piano virtuosos calls Philly home. -Lou Camp Beat Box Hip-Hop & You Don't Stop -Ainè Ardron-Doley The Gig -Nate Chinen They Survived Philly -Patrick Rapa

May 9-15, 2002

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J.D. Walter with Bob Dorough

There's a certain school of jazz singing defined more by an irreverence of spirit than by any ideology of style. It's the academy founded by Louis Armstrong and modified over the years by such tricksters as Cab Calloway, Betty Carter and Mark Murphy -- and now embodied nowhere better than in Bob Dorough (right) and J.D. Walter, two vocalists who otherwise share only a common zip code and (on this gig, anyway) a rhythm section. Dorough, of course, is both the sillier and more venerable of the two; the erstwhile bop pianist, best known as the mad voice behind ABC's Schoolhouse Rock, has lately achieved a too-famous-for-cult-hero status. Walter, whose fine new disc Clear Day (Double-Time) features saxophonist Dave Liebman, favors a now-soaring, now-sliding sound that rightfully evokes comparison with a saxophone. At a recent Greenwich Village gig, Walter's sharp-cornered scat improvisations were the highlight of a strong set -- until Dorough, gray ponytail wagging, was called up from his cafe table to warble "I'm Beginning to See the Light." The common denominator here is deep understanding of song; these aren't the kinds of singers who prompt musicians' complaints. Come to think of it, they don't tend to prompt complaints of any sort.

Sat., May 11, $12, 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., Chris’ Jazz Café, 1421 Sansom St., 215-568-3131.

–Nate Chinen