Rickie Lee Jones has a voice that is both unmistakable and mysterious. She can coo and moan with a jazziness, bending and swooping, whispering and then pushing with force. But she can also impart surprising grit and emotion in unexpected places. She’s like the jazziest folkie.
She was in a relationship with Tom Waits for a time, and either they had something of the idiosyncratic genius in common or something rubbed off from one of them to the other. She best known by some for her late-’70s hit “Chuck E.’s in Love,” which blended elements of jazz and soft pop. She moved into another unclassifiable stretch in the late ’80s with her record “Flying Cowboys,” which was loose and smooth and haunting.
She’s always been a master of interpretation (listen to her cover of Gerry and the Pacemaker’s “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying”), and she released a record of brooding covers in 2012. Jones’s extensive catalog has deep veins of lovely one-of-a-kind music.
Rickie Lee Jones performs at Fairfield Theater Company’s StageOne, 70 Sanford St., Wednesday, Aug. 24, at 7:45 p.m. Tickets are $85. Information: 203-259-1036 or fairfieldtheatre.org.