In recent decades, male jazz singers have become an endangered species. For every male jazz singer who debuted in the 1970s and 1980s, there were at least a dozen or more female jazz singers. And yet, some promising young male jazz singers emerged in the 1990s, including Kevin Mahogany, Kurt Elling, Allan Harris and Ian Shaw.

Another young male who is doing his part to keep jazz singing alive and healthy is the Philadelphia-based Lou Lanza, who has fashioned a distinctive and recognizable style that successfully unites the vulnerability of Chet Baker, Mel Torme and a young Frank Sinatra with the hard-bop risk-taking of Mark Murphy and Jon Hendricks.

"As far as the current crop of younger male jazz vocalists goes, most of them are either esoteric hard bop singers like Kurt Elling--whose risk-taking I admire--or they fall into the crooner vein a la Harry Connick and Allan Harris," explains Lanza, who provided three albums in the 1990s and is planning to release at least two or three more in 2003 and 2004. "There aren't too many who are in between, but I like to think that I'm a combination of the two."

Listening to Lanza's CDs, one hears a singer who has developed his style by paying close attention to a variety of artists--not only male jazz singers, but also, jazz instrumentalists, female jazz singers and classic pop crooners like Sinatra.

"I feel that I'm a bit of a wild card and that I'm a combination of a lot of different influences," asserts Lanza, who is unrelated to the Philadelphia opera singer Mario Lanza. "Chet Baker taught me the importance of showing your vulnerability, whereas Ella Fitzgerald showed me that I could move my voice around like an instrument whether I'm scatting or using words. Chet phrased beautifully, and obviously put a lot of thought into the impact and meaning of the lyrics he was singing. Mark Murphy is probably the best conglomeration of all those things because he has the vulnerability as well as the ability to use his voice as an instrument."

Lanza continues: "I think what I got the most from Sinatra was knowing the importance of the lyric. And Miles Davis showed me that you could improvise musically, yet still convey the meaning of the lyrics through the notes--without words."

Lanza's recording career began in 1995, when he recorded his promising debut album, The Road Not Taken, for the independent J-Bird label. That album was followed by his second album, Corner Pocket, a more eclectic outing that he recorded in 1997. "With Corner Pocket, I was concerned with hitting the jazz element especially hard, and I got more into bebop, scatting and vocalese," Lanza recalls. "I wanted someone to be able to pull out any song and say, 'This is definitely a straight-ahead jazz album.' "

But if Corner Pocket illustrated his more aggressive, hard-swinging side, Lanza favored a more pensive, reflective approach when he recorded his third album, Shadows and Echoes, for the Dutch Challenge Records. Shadows and Echoes was produced by jazz veteran Chris Ellis, a British singer who is also among the most respected jazz producers in Europe.

And just as The Road Not Taken, Corner Pocket and Shadows and Echoes were three very different albums, Lanza's next two releases will show the jazz world different sides of his artistry. One of them is An Intimate Portrait in Blue, a moody, often melancholy album of ballads and torch songs. The other album, Opening Doors: A Jazz Tribute to the Doors , is a hard-swinging, more aggressive effort that finds Lanza paying tribute to one of the top rock bands of the 1960s. The singer plans to release both Opening Doors and An Intimate Portrait in Blue on his own label City Sounds.

While Lanza isn't the first jazz artist to record songs by The Doors, Opening Doors marks the first time that an entire jazz vocal album has focused on their music exclusively. And make no mistake: Opening Doors is very much a jazz album. From "Light My Fire" to "Break On Through" - from "Hello I Love You" to "Riders on the Storm," Lanza brings a jazz improviser's mentality to songs that have a rock background.

"The Doors were among the most jazz-influenced rock groups of the 1960s," explains Lanza, who recorded Opening Doors in 2002. "You had a rhythm section comprised of people who had either played jazz at some point, or at least enjoyed it. And then you had a lead singer, Jim Morrison, who liked to improvise. So you had a rock group that had a lot of improvisational qualities. The Doors used some of the modalities and blues forms of jazz."

On Opening Doors, Lanza is joined by some of the finest jazz musicians in Philly, including trumpeter John Swana, drummer Byron Landham (who regularly plays with organist/trumpeter Joey DeFrancesco) and guitarist Rob Budesa (among others). Orrin Evans, who is primarily a pianist, is heard on Hammond organ.

But there are no horn players, organists or drummers on An Intimate Portrait in Blue; Lanza's only accompaniment on that album is Philly pianist Jason Long. Because Long is such a lyrical and melodic player, he was perfect for an album as introspective as An Intimate Portrait in Blue.

If one notices that Lanza's voice sounds a bit rougher than usual on An Intimate Portrait in Blue, it is because he was battling a cold when he recorded the album in 1998. And as Lanza sees it, that cold turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The singer explains: "An Intimate Portrait in Blue isn't meant to be the work of a high school student who got his heart broken for the first time. It's coming from the perspective of a man who has been a loser in the game of love, and someone like that is going to have a rougher edge to his voice."

Having a cold was the least of Lanza's problems when he recorded An Intimate Portrait in Blue. At the time, he was involved in a troubled marriage that only went from bad to worse--one that eventually ended in Lanza filing for divorce.

"At the time," Lanza recalls, "I was suffering from a great deal of abuse in a relationship--physical, mental and emotional. So I'm sure that something in my subconscious drove me to record that type of album. I think that the things I was going through are why the album came out as well as it did. Jason was also going through some things in his personal life at the time."

Lanza's marriage finally came to a troubled end in 2001, a year he will remember as the most difficult year of his life. It was also in 2001 that Lanza's mother, the late classical pianist/organist Joan Trombetta-Lanza, suffered a massive stroke. Trombetta-Lanza had been in a coma for several days when members of the Lanza family realized that there was no chance of recovery and agreed to remove her from life support. For Lanza, losing his mother and realizing that his marriage was doomed was a double whammy.

"The relationship I was in when I recorded An Intimate Portrait in Blue in 1998 didn't end in 1998, although it probably should have ended long before that. The end of that relationship was one of the most difficult things that I've ever had to go through - coupled with the death of my mother on October 12, 2001 and the destruction of my childhood home by a fire in August 2002."

But despite all he went through in 2001, Lanza didn't allow himself to be defeated by despair. If anything, the hell he went through made him stronger as a person and stronger as a jazz vocalist.

"Now that I'm out of that relationship, I feel rejuvenated musically," Lanza asserts. "I feel like I'm singing better than I ever have, and in some ways, I'm stronger than I've ever been--much like a metal that's been tested by fire. I think that any time you grow personally, you can't help but grow artistically because the two are so intertwined."

Opening Doors and An Intimate Portrait in Blue are only a few of the albums that Lanza will be promoting in 2002 and 2003. Lanza also plans to record a big band album and an album with The Modern Rock Quartet, a Philly-based combo that unites Lanza with vibraphonist Tony Micelli, acoustic bassist Kevin McConnell and drummer Butch Reed. The Modern Rock Quartet, whose name is a play on The Modern Rock Quartet, isn't really a rock group - it is an improvising jazz unit that specializes in hard bop and post-bop interpretations of rock songs. The Modern Rock Quartet is far from a cover band; when Lanza and his colleagues embrace Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir," The Beatles' "Come Together" or The Police's "Every Breath You Take," the songs become vehicles for true jazz improvisation. Like John Coltrane playing "My Favorite Things" or Charlie Parker playing "Autumn in New York," the MRQ is a jazz celebration of popular music-only the MRQ's repertoire includes The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones and The Doors (among others) instead of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and Harry Warren.

No discussion of Lanza's history would be adequate without some mention of his upbringing in Philadelphia--a musical hotbed that gave us John Coltrane, Lee Morgan, The Heath Bros., Jimmy Smith, McCoy Tyner and many other jazz giants. Born in Philly on July 20, 1970, Lanza is the grandson of opera singer Louis Lanza, Sr. (an immigrant who moved to the U.S. from the southern part of Italy in the 1920s) and classical violinist Louis Lanza, Jr. (a long-time member of the Philadelphia Orchestra). Lou Lanza's mother, the late Joan Trombetta-Lanza, was a classical pianist, organist and music teacher. But the family member who did the most to encourage Lanza's interest in jazz was saxophonist, arranger and music teacher Vince Trombetta, who served as musical director of "The Mike Douglas Show" when it was Philly-based. Trombetta's students have included Michael & Randy Brecker and Stanley Clarke.

"Growing up in Philadelphia definitely gives your music more of an urban perspective," stresses Lanza, who performs traditional Christian music in addition to his jazz singing. "Philadelphia has a rich cultural and musical heritage. I love the city. An amazing variety of music came of Philadelphia--classical, swing, bebop, pop, rock, R&B, disco and more recently, hip-hop and alternative rock. It's been a very fertile area for music even if it isn't always terribly supportive of its artists."

Lanza is an actor as well as a singer; in the early 1990s, he appeared in some off-Broadway productions. But in recent years, he has chosen to focus on his singing instead, although he hasn't ruled out the possibility of doing some acting again.

In the 1990s, Lanza's music teachers included guitarist Jimmy Bruno and tenor saxophonist Larry McKenna (who is considered a local legend Philly). Lanza's live performances in Philly, New York (where he has enjoyed six-night engagements at Tavern On The Green), Los Angeles and Atlantic City have earned him the admiration of everyone from Philly tenor saxophonist Bootsie Barnes and jazz singer Mark Murphy to pop legend Tony Bennett, who told him, "Lou, you are great! Keep on singing!"

Another strong Lanza supporter, Philadelphia Inquirer jazz critic Donald True Van Deusen, said of him: "There is an intensity to (Lanza's) singing that is unique, upbeat and hip; his musicianship is extraordinary." And Bob Perkins, Philly's most famous jazz deejay, stressed: "Keep your eyes on this Lanza kid, because not only does he have a thorough understanding of classic pop and jazz vocalizing, he is also an accomplished instrumentalist, songwriter and actor."

Far from a so-called "jazz snob" who hates any music that isn't jazz, Lanza has listened to rock, R&B, classical and Brazilian music extensively and can carry on a long conversation about any of those forms. Perhaps it is that type of open-mindedness that gives Lanza's music its freshness.

"People often ask me what my musical preference is," notes Lanza, who plans to do more composing on future albums. "'What do you like doing the most--bebop, scat singing, vocalese, bossa nova, ballads or torch singing?' And my response is that I like to do them all and bring variety to an album or a live performance. When I first met Mark Murphy, his advice was to keep them guessing--and I'd like to think that keeping them guessing is exactly what I'm doing."