JAZZ REVIEW : GRECO’S HERE WITH A VEGAS MINIATURE

Say this about singer Buddy Greco: He’s very good at what he does. His opening at the Cinegrill on Tuesday night was a masterful lesson in how to reduce a large-scale Las Vegas show lounge act to the far smaller environs of an intimate cabaret.

Greco touched all the familiar bases. He was bright and brassy on “At Long Last Love,” jazz-driven on “Taking a Chance on Love,” insinuating on “Teach Me Tonight” and rhapsodic on his piano specialty versions of “Misty” and “MacArthur Park.”

Add the spontaneous sharing of his program time with songwriter John Maticoff and singer Peggy March (the former Little Peggy March), and you have the miniaturization of a Vegas act.

The problem is that it’s all been done before--too many times. Greco may very well be the best of the still-active Sinatra spin-off baritones of the ‘40s and ‘50s; he is certainly the most musical. But is the world really waiting with baited breath to hear yet another upbeat version of “The Lady Is a Tramp” (complete with finger-snapping lead-in)?

Ironically, Greco, unlike many of his contemporaries, is quite capable of doing things differently. A solid jazz pianist before he became a headline singer, he has the technique and the musical sensitivity to bring far more to his songs than the macho brashness that has become such a wearisome part of this genre of music.

Hearing Greco’s interpretation of “The More I See You,” with its delicate interaction between voice and piano, led one to ponder how he would sound without the rhythm section and the mini-big band charts, singing a repertoire that challenged his now too-rarely tested musical sensibilities.

Greco continues at the Cinegrill through Saturday night.