Don't ever underestimate glamour, especially that of singer Kat Edmonson. Nearly everything about Edmonson is deceptive. She's diminutive in stature and voice, with a short-blonde pixie haircut and gamine countenance. The voice is strange at first, too - all headtone, even nasal. But it doesn't take more than a couple of songs to hear how focused and powerful that voice really is - in its dynamic shifts, in its octave leaps, in Edmonson's ability to aim it at pitch and syllable like a laser.

The ostensible draw for the Cookers is the venerable firepower of their front line - tenor saxophonist Billy Harper and trumpeter Eddie Henderson, who are seen all too rarely in these parts, and Cookers "administrative director" David Weiss (also on trumpet) with Craig Handy on alto sax. But what really makes the band work is how they all sound together

Lake Street Dive

It's hard to say what in particular cast such a giddy glow over New England Conservatory's "Generations of Jazz" show at Scullers on Wednesday night. Maybe it was semi-matching cardigans worn by openers Lake Street Dive (green, pink, and GoodFellas canary yellow). Or the stories the former students told about writing some of their smart, funny songs as NEC assignments.

^{Photo by Michael Kurgansky}

I’m loath to review shows that I’ve written previews about -- after all, they put me the the position of either saying “I told you so” or apologizing for someone who didn’t live up to my own hype. But the case of Julian Lage is different. Lage’s debut solo CD, Sounding Point (Concord), was recorded in May and June of 2008, shortly after his band’s formation.