PRYSOCK, Arthur Today's Love Songs, Tomorrows's Blues (1988)

Arthur Prysock, a vastly underrated jazz vocalist whose ur-bane stylings belong with Billy Eckstine, Brook Benton, and the grittier Jimmy Witherspoon, his prolific but commer-cially unspectacular output has emerged on Verve, Bethle-hem, Old Town and King. He can handle blues like 'It's Too Late' with complete conviction, provide a tricky jazz rendition of 'You Had Better Change Your Ways', drama-tize 'pop' with 'Mama' or 'A Working Man's Prayer', and intelligently explore standards such as 'I'm Gonna Sit Right Down' or Gershwin's 'Unforgettable'.

His accompaniments are invariably restrained and involve some combination of sax, guitar, piano or vibes in an orchestral setting. His rec-ordings are resolutely in that tradition established in Ameri-can supper clubs of the late Forties and Fifties.