Dooji Wooji

Jazz singer-lyricist Lorraine Feather’s adept, swinging singing (except for the occasional slow tune, which she sings with a touching tenderness) and very clever, mind-enlivening lyrics bring joy to the listener of this ’30s/’40s retro-style album. Daughter of the late famed jazz writer Leonard Feather and his singer wife Jane, and the goddaughter of none other than Billie Holiday, Ms. Feather may have inherited a little something by heredity or osmosis, but if so, she certainly ran with it. Dooji Wooji—a mixture of co-written originals and four Duke Ellington tunes revamped with Feather’s engaging lyrics—is a treat the whole way through. Her “Calistoga Bay” is a catchy, fun reworking of Ellington’s “Harlem Air Shaft.” “Remembering to Breathe” is a subtle, sensitive, life-lesson song presented as a story about student ballet dancers. “Happy You Were Here” is a lovely ballad that could just as easily have been written for a beloved dead parent as for a lost love: “Happy you were here to change my days/ Delight me with your little ways/ Your soulful eyes wouldn’t let me pass you by.”