Making good, flying home

Lansing-born drummer Lawrence Leathers, now a deeply dug-in denizen of the New York jazz scene, is an awestruck fan as well as a collaborator.

“It´s kind of scary to know her, listen to her sing, and play with her,” Leathers said. “She’s one of the best musicians I know.”

If you missed Salvant’s scintillating set at East Lansing’s Summer Solstice Jazz Festival last year, now is the time to catch up with her. MSU´s jazz studies director and bassist, Rodney Whitaker, wasn’t shy about comparing Salvant to Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan.

Whitaker called her “scary,” too.

“I´ve never met a person that age with so much depth of understanding of the history of her craft,” he said.

Leathers is a familiar face (and upper body blur) to Lansing area jazz lovers from his early-aughts years at MSU, when he studied with drummer Randy Gelispie, Whitaker and the stellar MSU jazz faculty.

“Those years back home at MSU gave me my armor and sword,” Leathers said. “Without those guys I wouldn´t be out here.”

After a year in Kansas City, Leathers moved to New York in 2007, where he’s carving his name in the neon, playing regularly in top clubs with some big names.

“New York is the big show,” Leathers said. “It’s always been my goal to come out here.”

As one-third of cerebral pianist Aaron Diehl’s trio, Leathers has been holding forth at Smalls Jazz Club in Greenwich Village for about five years. The trio — Diehl, Leathers and bassist Paul Sikivie — met at a gig at Mackinac Island’s Grand Hotel. It’s weekly gig as Smalls has attracted some high-profile fans and sit-inners.

One memorable night, the trio was joined by trumpeters Wynton Marsalis and Dominick Farinacci and saxmen Victor Goines and Wessell Anderson.

Marsalis was the catalyst for Leathers’ gig with Salvant, one of jazz’s freshest and most impressive vocalists in a long time. When Salvant won the 2010 Thelonious Monk competition, the most prestigious in jazz, tour offers started to roll in. Marsalis suggested she hook up with Diehl’s trio.

Leathers has played a lot of straightup jazz in New York, joining top artists like baritone sax veteran Joe Temperley and guitarist Russell Malone, but Salvant brought him into new territory.

“She comes from such a diverse pool of music and art,” Leathers said. “When she sings, you can hear a lot of different influences, including classical training.”

Besides singing standards patented by legends like Fitzgerald and Vaughan, Salvant pulls show tunes, like “The Trolley Song” and ancient chestnuts like “St. Louis Gal” and “Nobody,” and kicks them into post-ironic immediacy. She’s part of a long tradition, but not subservient to it. Her strange calls on “What a Little Moonlight Can Do” go through your skull like neutrinos.

Leathers loves to rummage through Salvant’s CD and vinyl collection.

“She draws from 1910, the 1800s — it’s interesting and fun because we play things I’ve never heard of and put our own spin to them,” he said.

For a drummer, playing with a singer is often less satisfying than a trio or quartet gig, but Leathers found that Salvant puts musicianship above ego.

“A lot of time, people play with vocalists and there’s a separation between the vocalist and the rest of the band,” Leathers said. “She’s just another instrument on the bandstand.”

But what an instrument.

“The beautiful thing with her is that her talent and her personality does all the talking,” Leathers said.

Back in Lansing, Leathers is looking forward to catching up with family, friends and his old MSU professors.

The reunions get rarer as he gets busier. Gigs with Salvant are ramping up as her star rises in the jazz world. (A second CD, following last year’s “WomanChild,” is due in August.) Leathers’ own band, with rotating members, has a regular home at Ginny’s Supper Club, downstairs from Harlem’s Red Rooster restaurant.

Now, when musicians from Marsalis on down call him for gigs, he has to be careful not to double book.

“I was talking with Aaron (Diehl) about having good problems, having to turn down work,” he said. “There’s always going to be opportunities if you do the right things.”

Cécile McLorin Salvant

7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 29 $42/$15 students Wharton Center, Pasant Theatre 750 E. Shaw Lane, East Lansing (517) 432-2000, whartoncenter.com