Robert Cooper photo

Nicki Mathis.

Lots of things contribute to the makings of a great female jazz singer, beside just a great singing voice: a stylishly graceful wardrobe, a laid back (but spunky) demeanor, and a connection with the audience. Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Nina Simone, Dinah Washington and Nancy Wilson all had it and so, too, does Hartford's own Nicki Mathis. Despite torrential rainfall on Saturday night that had me wanting to build a boat and get as many animals as I can, I made it to the Wadsworth Athenaeum's Aetna Theater to hear Mathis and others at the Many Colors of a Woman jazz concert.

This year marks the 21st anniversary of the concert series that celebrates the musical talents of both professional and amateur women in Connecticut. Mathis started Many Colors of a Woman Inc., along with her longtime friend Frances Cooper who now serves as president.

"The concerts are a way of bringing women together," said Cooper. "When we first started, there weren't a lot of venues for female artists."

The show opened with a spoken-word piece by Carla Dean that took the listener back to a much simpler time in Africa. Mathis took to the stage afterward with her band, the Afrikan Amerikan Jazz New Millennium All Stars, a 16-piece ensemble made up of mostly women of all ethnicities. With a long, flowing white gown, Mathis opened her set with a jazzy rendition of the "Lord's Prayer."

When Mathis's band is performing, it is not all about her; each band member gets their time to shine, playing solo routines and numbers they've written. Among the players in the ensemble are Yasuyo Kimura on the congas, Bill Lowe on trombone, Janice Friedman on piano, and Jonathan Barber on drums.

Among the original songs performed were Friedman's "Get Set," flute/vocalist Dotti Anita Taylor's "You've Got It," and Mathis's "Make some Kind of Magic," and the ode to black women, "Ebonique." Special guest singer Antoinette Montague took the Motown out of the Temptations' "Get Ready," injecting it with jazz, and dedicated to Mathis "Miss Celie's Blues," from the movie A Color Purple.

A taste of Hartford's musical future was provided via a brief performance from brother and sister Amina and Rodney Edwards. Rodney is 7 years old and he played a mean cello while 9-year-old Amina did her thing on the violin. It was refreshing to see that there are still youngsters who actually play instruments and not just a synthesizer or a drum machine.

After a brief intermission, Nzingha's Daughters, another female jazz ensemble, began their set. The sextet performed a medley of their own tunes along with the O'Jays' "Love Train," Duke Ellington's "In a Mellow Tone," and Robin Thicke's "Lost Without You." Mathis and her band closed the show with more of their own material as well as a tune by Anita Baker.

I asked Mathis why it's important to keep jazz alive.

"It's an expression of freedom," she said. "It's a piece of our history and our future. We have to do (jazz); it's in our blood."¦

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