Imagine starting a song without counting off the tempo or even telling one’s sidemen the name of the tune. Jazz singer/bandleader Judy Chamberlain, who has mastered the art of mesmerizing both the audience and her own band, does that regularly with her group without a moment’s hesitation. The results are both spontaneous and memorable.

A New York City native who spent her childhood shuttling between homes in Manhattan and Connecticut, Chamberlain has had careers along the way as a radio/TV commentator and lifestyle columnist but always sang, becoming a professional when she was 13. After moving to southern California in 1980, she established herself as a popular performer whose 4,000-song repertoire ranges from the Great American Songbook to swing and vintage rock & roll. She also oversees the extensive jazz program at the famed Spazio in Los Angeles, produces a noteworthy annual summer concert series in the courtyard of the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, and serves as artistic director for the KKJZ Los Angeles International Jazz Festival.

Judy Chamberlain, who maintains a busy performance schedule putting on critically acclaimed and highly entertaining shows including her own unique “Swinging Jazz Salute to Frank Sinatra,” has thus far recorded one CD, Road Trip.