Vocalist Sheila Jordan has been working small wonders on the periphery of jazz popularity for decades, producing a uniformly impressive and adventurous body of work in the process. Jazz Child, a characteristically eclectic outing, continues her stealth campaign with another low-key, high-impact set of enlightened explorations. Jordan, one of the most musical of modern singers, doesn't get in your face with overwrought vocal theatrics. Her jazz sensibilities are so advanced and so innate that, like Carmen McRae, she seems to come at songs from the inside out. Standards such as "My Funny Valentine" are opened up and reconfigured to reveal fresh new facets while less familiar songs, like Abbey Lincoln's Charlie Parker tribute "Bird Alone," take flight on the wings of her improvisational expertise. When she takes on still more challenging material, such as avant icon Don Cherry's "Art Deco," complete with lyrics she composed, there is no female jazz singer who can match her combination of quiet fire and deft finesse. Pianist Steve Kuhn, with whom the singer performed and recorded in the '70s, underpins her efforts with his trio. Kuhn's economical but evocative piano work is a perfect match for Jordan's masterful minimalism as he anticipates and embellishes her every subtle nuance, whether she's scatting, swinging, or just sailing along in her own private vocal universe. --Michael Point