JAZZ REVIEW : ROWLES: MUSIC TO AID THE PALATE

Some of the most agreeable dinner music in town is being purveyed Sundays and Mondays by Stacy Rowles in the restaurant/bar at Le Mondrian on the Sunset Strip.

Rowles has been here in recent weeks as part of an expanded, seven-nights-a-week music policy that brings David and Suzanne Miller to the room Tuesdays through Saturdays.

Making a two-piece group function meaningfully is no simple task, particularly when the instruments in question are a fluegelhorn and a piano. Nevertheless, Rowles brings her diversified experience effectively to bear on a program of jazz standards.

Her fluency both on open horn and muted trumpet overcomes the limitations involved in keeping the volume down to a certain level for the early sets. Whether in a driving groove on “I Love You” or lyrically understated while limning a waltz such as Johnny Mandel’s “Emily,” Rowles remains tastefully inventive in every tempo and mood.

Her pianist, Diana Krall, is a surprisingly talented foil, capable of keeping a steady, economical left-hand beat moving, often like a bass line; she’s also a post-bop soloist whose maturity belies her age. Only 22, she moved here two years ago from Vancouver and has been studying with her partner’s father, Jimmy Rowles.

One can hope it will soon be feasible to add a bass player, the absence of which became a slight problem at times. Yet, for the most part this is the kind of laid-back jazz that’s guaranteed to aid the digestion. Rowles and Krall will return Sunday.