A trio of singers who laid the groundwork in the Bay Area for their respective careers teamed up for an engaging music-filled fundraiser at Lincoln Theater last Sunday.

Actually a fundraising effort for the venue’s artistic endeavors, Lucky Stars presented jazz singer Denise Perrier, songwriter/singer Spencer Day and bluesy Lavay Smith in a two-and-a-half-hour program that also featured some of the top instrumentalists on the bandstand.

For example, pianist Larry Dunlap — half of a noted cabaret jazz team that includes his wife, singer Bobbe Norris — provided some of the string arrangements for Perrier, while drummer Vince Lateano and alto sax wizard Jules Broussard turned up as members of Smith’s backup ensemble, the Red Hot Skillet Lickers, one of the top swing and jump-blues bands around.

The addition of a pair of violins, viola and cello to the special concert orchestra made for terrific arrangements for both Perrier and Day, allowing for a rich orchestral sound on several of the standards and original compositions offered by the respective artists.

For example, a Dunlap arrangement of the Ivan Lins/Marilyn and Alan Bergman song, “The Island,” showed off Perrier’s warm alto to good advantage. And several of Day’s songs — the examination of fleeting time in the new “Weeping Willow” and the artist’s quest for reality in “Who Knows?” — benefited from the lush string accompaniment.

Day’s half-hour set included poignant observations on the passing scene in “The Movie of Your Life,” an amusing musical satire about the beheading of Marie Antoinette and a young man’s thoughts about love lost on “The Last Train to New Jersey.”

At 30, Day is poised to become a major player on the club and concert hall circuit. In fact, he returns for a full evening performing of his witty, on-the-mark compositions at the Napa Valley Opera House on Dec. 6. Sunday night’s performance amounted to a tasty preview.

Perrier also scored with a medley of Duke Ellington classics, including “Do Nothin’ Til You Hear From Me,” “Mood Indigo,” “Satin Doll” and “Take the ‘A’ Train.”

Some in the relatively small audience didn’t know what to make of Lavay Smith. She’s a looker with a sultry voice, which makes her a natural to sing the Nat “King” Cole classic, “Gee, Baby, Ain’t I Good To You?” and the Tin Pan Alley standard, “Deed I Do.”

But the gal has absolutely no rhythm. As she was front and center on a broad stage, there was no hiding it. She employs a “Cement Mixer, Putty Putty” movement, a la Jimmie Lunceford, which has nothing to do with the beat of the song at hand. It’s annoying and makes one want to clap her in a straitjacket. Her two sets were best taken in with the eyes shut.