RIVERS SHOWS SPIRIT--AND SPLENDID VOCALS

An abundance of spirit and playfulness marked Mavis Rivers’ opening set Thursday at Perino’s Oak Room Bar in the Mid-Wilshire district.

Accompanied to perfection by pianist Alan Broadbent, the veteran jazz singer sounded splendid on her almost dozen tunes, exhibiting elan on the upbeat numbers, reserve on poignant songs.

Rivers’ spry, soprano voice was a pleasure to hear, and she balanced low, throaty tones with tantalizing high-note ascents. She shifted deftly between loud and subdued phrases, and she also employed her firmly controlled vibrato economically and effectively: Her ringing, wavering notes on the bridge of “Try a Little Tenderness” contrasted nicely with her earlier emotive reading.

Like many singers who work with jazz feeling, Rivers loves to fool around with the rhythmic placement of her phrases, and she can do it with the best. She dragged her words on “Tenderness” as if they weighed a ton and dropped them in happily helter-skelter on “Baubles, Bangles and Beads.”

Though Rivers can deliver a dandy “up” tune, she excelled on two ballads, “If You Could See Me Now” and “Everytime We Say Goodbye.” The latter was particularly heartfelt.

Broadbent provided the singer with just what she needed: well-chosen chords mixed with fluid linear ideas that flushed out the songs’ melodies, all placed on a rock-solid rhythmic roadbed. He opened the set with three tunes, among them the ever-challenging “Airegin,” where his clean, precise ideas were played at a quicksilver pace on top of the song’s weaving harmonies and pulsing swing.