TITLE: ”Till I Get It Right” (FreeHam Records)

ARTIST: Mark Winkler

STARS: 4 Out Of 5 Stars

SOUNDS LIKE: 1950s West Hollywood vocal jazz

TEXT: Mark Winkler has a throwback voice. His is a voice that sounds straight of out 1950s Hollywood. It’s smooth and laid back cool in a West Hollywood, finger snapping sort of way.

Winkler’s lyrics takes mini-stories about life, love and broken hearts among the hipsters and femme fatales today and burnishes them in a cool jazz Chet Baker stlyed sheen. It’s beatnik poetry against a nightclub groove.

I guess I picked up on Winkler’s 1950s California vibe when I first his “1995 album “Tales From Hollywood.” That was a brilliant concept album of 1950s fim noir jazz which featured the popular “Too Hip for the Room.”

Winkler’s back again with that West Coast vibe and easily recognizable voice on “Till I Get It Right.”

The title tune, a lively finger snapping jam sets the tone for this CD of 12 original songs. Following this smoky opener is the playful “How Can that Make You Fat?” a cooly humorous piece punctuated by Bob Sheppard’s terse sax playing.

“Sissies,” a tribute of sorts to Truman Capote, is a tastefully done piece that compares homosexuality today to yesterday. It has the line “They don’t make sissies like that anymore.”

Vocalist Cheryl Bentyne joins Winkler on the Henry Mancini flavored hip, “Cool.”

“How to Pack a Suitcase” is a humorous bluesy take on breaking up.

The jazz accompaniment of all of the tunes on “Till I Get It right is top notch. On each tune the band, comprised of Jamieson Trotter on piano, Don Lutz on bass, Steve Hass on drums, Anthony Wilson on guitar, Ron Blake on trumpet and saxophonist Shepard, get plenty ample time to jam.