Any aspiring jazz singer can get up in front of a competent trio and make their way through a familiar standard. What makes this kind of music so easy, though, is also what poses its greatest challenge—a good song will assert itself in almost anyone’s hands, but it takes real talent to personalize a tune everyone already knows. Betty Shirley, who performs regularly at the Mystik Den lounge bar at the Royal Sonesta, has mastered this form because she’s able to make songs made famous by others her own. The best example on Close Your Eyes is Shirley’s reading of the Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer classic “That Old Black Magic,” a memorable song covered by countless crooners but codified for fans of New Orleans music by the Louis Prima/Keely Smith version. Shirley’s arrangement, with her regular trio led by bassist Richard Moten providing astute accompaniment, takes a novel approach to the pliable verses, emphasizing the conversational poetic cadence of the lyrics and introducing subtle harmonic substitutions to the music.

Shirley’s most dramatic approach to personalizing this material is her liberal employment of scatting techniques, particularly on Juan Tizol’s Latin music touchstone, “Perdido,” which is almost completely vocalese in her version, but also on the incongruous album opener, an openly pop rendition of “Bursting in with the Dawn,” and on “You Stepped Out of a Dream.” Oddly, these songs all come early in the album sequencing, leading the listener in one direction before taking other paths. Fortunately, all of those roads lead to pleasant destinations. Shirley’s command of rhythm and flow is put to good use on several Brazilian compositions including Antonio Carlos Jobim’s narcotic “Wave” and “Triste,” and her straight ahead interpretive ability is showcased on the unprepossessing approach she takes to “The Very Thought of You” and “The Man I Love.”