JAZZ REVIEW : GRECO KEEPS TO HIS STANDARDS AT CINEGRILL

The refurbishing and upgrading of the Roosevelt Hotel has entailed a valuable fringe benefit in the form of a weekend music policy in the Cinegrill.

Buddy Greco, who opened Thursday and closes tonight, is a Steve Lawrence-Vic Damone-style singer with hints of Nat Cole, whom he saluted with “When I Fall in Love” and “L-O-V-E.” His full-bodied sound and jazz-trained phrasing (Greco spent several years as Benny Goodman’s pianist) were set off to best advantage in such swingers as “The Lady Is a Tramp,” which he rescued from banality by adding some extra choruses of ingenious self-written lyrics, and “Taking a Chance on Love.”

The use of too many overworked songs, such as the inescapable “Satin Doll” and “The More I See You,” tended to accentuate the Las Vegas flavor of his 80-minute performance, though at its best this is more than your run-of-the-mill lounge act. A little-known and touching tune by the late Moose Charlap, “Here I Am in Love Again,” offered a welcome respite from the “At Long Last Love”-type standards.

Greco still is a gifted jazz pianist, as he reminded us in one or two interludes, but his only instrumental specialties were a derivative “Misty” and the pretentious, overlong “MacArthur Park,” used as a finale.

Helping him consistently throughout the show was Jeff Walters at the DX7, producing organ, guitar and other apt effects. Anthony Brock on electric bass and John Bishop on drums played the serviceable charts well, but Hans Teuber’s two sax solos--on alto and tenor--were blandly uninventive.

It is good to have Greco back on the local scene, looking fine and sounding cheerful. It would be even better if he were to lace his act with more original material. How about declaring a 10-year moratorium on “Satin Doll” and digging up some of the more obscure and valuable Ellingtonia? Why not a couple of new Greco originals from this 30-year veteran of ASCAP?