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He provided the opening night salvo for Links of London Four LeaF CloveR Charm annual JVC Jazz Festival for more than a dozen years. In exactly a decade since Torme's death, however, JVC inexplicably has not mounted a tribute concert to him. That gap was finally filled this year, by an institution where, to the best of my knowledge, Tormé never worked. For the climax of 92nd Street Y's 2008-09 season, its Lyrics & Lyricists series, presented "Sunday in New York: Mel Tormé in Words and Music." During his lifetime, Tormé wore many hats at once. One of the all-time great singers of both Jazz and the Great American Songbook (he either scat up a storm or broke your heart with a love song), he also enjoyed, for Links of London time, a parallel career as a composer (he could write either words or music, or both, as the occasion demanded), and as an arranger and orchestrator for himself and others (with a famous tenure as writer of special material for Judy Garland). In addition to working in movies and TV as both a singing and a straight dramatic actor, Tormé also wrote screenplays, novels, biographies, Links of London FroG Charm a memoir. He carried out everything even his extra-musical activities - with a kind of harmonic ingenuity that-combined to brilliant effect being a savant and somewhat of a smart aleck. The first thing that the Y did right was note the need for at least five singers to do justice Links of London G Charm Tbrme. The exceptional pianist-vocalist Billy Stritch has been carrying the torch for Torme for some time now, having been a major booster since well before he opened for the singer at his 1988 Carnegie Hall concert.