JAZZ REVIEW : Brown’s Youthful Enthusiasm at Vine St.

Oscar Brown Jr. is back at the Vine St. Bar & Grill in Hollywood, doing what came naturally to him when he first stepped onto a stage: namely, singing anecdotal songs in his own highly personal lyrical and melodic terms, and acting them out with the visual grace of a dancer.

At 62, he still brings much of his young enthusiasm to bear on the stories he tells. If his vocal timbre is not as consistently strong today, the emotion he brings to his compositions invariably delivers the message. His opening number, a long humorous story about Adam and Eve, was done virtually as a recitative. Some of his material has been long familiar, but his audiences no doubt would refuse to let him leave the stage without such standards as “The Signifyin’ Monkey” and “Afro Blue,” both of which he recorded 30 years ago.

During the first few tunes, Brown’s background of guitar, bass and drums seemed to offer rather vague support, as if the pianist had failed to show up; but when Oscar Brown III began to assume the spotlight, as bassist and in a couple of vocal duets with his father, the show came more fully into focus.

What the senior Brown’s material may lack in sophistication it makes up for in folkloric wit. Several of the songs stem from shows he has put together over the decades, or from a new one on which he is now working, based on the story of Zora Neale Hurston, the writer who came to prominence in the 1920s.

If his messages are not deep, they are invariably entertaining and they never fail to swing. Brown will remain at Vine Street through Sunday.