It's been a while since Diane Armesto has had a steady gig in Rochester, but her career as a jazz singer is by no means on hold. She has just simultaneously released her third and fourth CDs, albums years in the making.

Pop stars who sell hundreds of thousands of CDs may time their albums for maximum impact with a fan base, but for jazz artists, with sales in the hundreds, it's more about putting out a work of art. For Armesto, the time was right for two.

"I am in a zone," says Armesto. "Having access to Bill Dobbins' string arrangements and the great musicians I have, I am capturing this moment in time, taking full advantage of it."

Dobbins, a professor of jazz studies and contemporary media at the Eastman School of Music, was the pianist in Armesto's band for a steady gig at the Little Theatre Café earlier this decade. An authority on the oeuvre of Duke Ellington (among others), Dobbins crafted gorgeous arrangements on both CDs, "Ballads With Strings" and "Jazz With Brass, Winds & Strings."

Armesto's Little Theatre band, which includes Mike Melito (drums) and Fred Stone Jr. (bass), plays on the majority of both albums' tracks. Aside from the string and brass players, there are numerous guests, including alto saxophonist Joe Romano, drummer Joe LaBarbera, and percussionist Marko Marcinko.

Armesto's repertoire includes "I Wish I Knew," "Never Let Me Go," "I Fall In Love Too Easily," and many more classics.

"She has a great knack for selecting repertoire, the greatest songs in the American Song Book," says Dobbins.

Also included are two originals by Armesto - one written with Mark Flugge and another with Joe Magnirelli - and a tune by her late father, Johnny Armesto. All are sung with her warm alto and understated phrasing, just the way she wants them to sound.

Armesto finances her albums by working in a AT A? OR IN THE? real estate business in Buffalo. She's on the road two days a week, managing 40 properties.

"This is really important," says Armesto. "Rather than allowing all of my artistic judgment calls to fall into the hands of somebody who wants to exploit me or the music, I just go back and work my little butt off in Buffalo. I conjure up enough funds so that I can pay my bills and come back here and do music. It's all 100 percent, complete artistic integrity."

Armesto has never compromised when it comes to her music.

"I had a decision to make," she says. "I could do weddings. I could do casual gigs and just live right here. Instead of having a semi-day job, I could throw myself into this other sort of stuff. I made the decision to go in and suffer through some real estate deals and keep the music pure."

When Armesto began working on this project three years ago, she envisioned one album with accompaniment by her Little Theatre trio. But when she listened over and over to the tracks, she decided they needed some strings. Dobbins was happy to oblige.

Further along in the process Armesto told him she wanted to hear brass on some of the tracks. Then she decided to dedicate an entire CD, with strings, to ballads.

"It was a completely different way of working," says Dobbins, who, in effect, worked backwards, writing string and horn arrangements to fit pre-existing trio tracks. "I found it intriguing. The music really ended up in a different way than if it had been done in the usual way, where you write everything out and then the soloists and improvisers work in relation to that."

Dobbins believes it succeeded because members of the trio and Armesto were tasteful in terms of leaving space in the arrangements.

"She likes to hear the trio play; there's equal emphasis on the singer and the band," says Dobbins. "My main goal was to do something that enhanced what was there and was organically influenced by what was there without interfering with it. In that way it's similar to the Bill Evans ‘Conversations With Myself' albums."

Dobbins is referring to a series of albums, begun in 1963, on which the great pianist recorded tunes and then overdubbed piano parts, reacting to what he had done previously.

"As a writer and especially as a player, I think it's one of the best things that I've done," says Dobbins. "Everybody played in a way that every note counts. That doesn't happen all the time."

The albums can be found at the Bop Shop and the Pittsford Barnes & Noble store, and heard on WGMC 90.1 FM. But neither Armesto nor Dobbins is satisfied with only local exposure.

"The two of us went into this knowing we weren't looking for any big hits or fame or fortune. It was a pure artistic endeavor," says Armesto. "However, I can't help but think, now that it's done, that this is work jazz lovers would appreciate deeply and I do hear it going literally around the world. I really need to focus on getting it promoted."

While she works on promotion, Armesto has already begun planning another ballad album, but this one, she insists, will be more optimistic. And she's already let Dobbins know that on the next one she wants to hear some French horns, flutes, and trumpets.

For a look at Armesto's past, including her relationship with the great (and tragic) trombonist Frank Rosolino, read "All blues: Diane Armesto: a life caught in music" in City's archives at: http://www.rochestercitynewspaper.com/archives/All-blues/