LaVon Hardison is more than another great jazz vocalist. Each song she sings oozes with personality and character, whether it’s her digging into the dark disfunction at the heart of “Perhaps” or her glass-half-full optimism on “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love.”

LaVon mixes such jazz standards with some unusual pop covers. In LaVon’s highly creative arrangements, each song becomes a tool for exploring the characters and their stories, and even familiar tunes take on new meaning and depth. She can give the swamp-blues treatment to Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition,” for example, or infuse “It’s Alright With Me” with such sad desperation you’ll wonder how anyone could interpret it differently.

The musicians backing LaVon are an eclectic and talented group. Guitarist Steven Luceno is well-known on the local jazz scene and a longtime member of Latin jazz groups Ocho Pies and Obrador. Bass player Lorree Gardener is part of the all-women Cuban jazz ensemble Bevy. Rounding out the group is drummer Brad Gibson, a successful Seattle-based musician and teacher.

The LaVon Hardison Jazz Quartet (also available as a vocal-guitar-bass trio) has played sold-out shows in Olympia (Traditions Cafe, Olympia Playhouse) and is winning consistent rave reviews.