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Jazz vocalist Dennis Rowland is an overlooked treasure. The last singer for the Count Basie band, Rowland uses the low-key, non-blues-belter side of Joe Williams as his starting point. Then he mixes in a touch of Johnny Hartman's romantic sound for the most subtle and natural results. Rowland is good; he doesn't attempt to dazzle you with empty vocal pyrotechnics, he communicates. His three Concord Jazz recordings are choice, with Now Dig This!, his 1997 tribute to Miles Davis, out-shining Shirley Horn's worthy I Remember Miles. Like Susannah McCorkle, Dennis Rowland evokes the approach of the past's great singers without slavishly copying them.
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