Pop and Jazz Reviews : Vanessa Rubin Sings With Savvy at Cinegrill

There is more to jazz singing than dodging the melody, or scatting the blues. Vanessa Rubin, who opened Tuesday and continues through Sunday at the Cinegrill, clearly understands this. She even expressed her credo in an opening waltz, “Music Makes the World Go ‘Round,” with lyrical references to Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane et al.

Rubin’s confident assumption of the jazz banner is fortified by a musicianly sense of phrasing, flawless intonation and a total lack of unmelodic Cassandra Wilson-Betty Carter mannerisms. She scatted on a few tunes, but never to excess.

It is rare today to find a young vocalist handling standards like “I’ve Got the World on a String” and “All the Things You Are” with saucy, buoyant authenticity. Mixed in with these chestnuts were a few surprises: Wayne Shorter’s “Black Nile,” Teri Thornton’s “Language of Love” and most significantly “When We Were One,” in which she brought sensitivity to the Mike Hennessey lyric and to Johnny Griffin’s beguiling melody.

Her long blues medley rambled through a series of unrelated lyrics. A single song telling a consistent story would have been preferable. Rubin also uses too much melisma. She didn’t need to break the first two letters of “Tenderly” into seven syllables. But these are minor flaws, as is her tendency to occasional extravagance. The closing “Summertime” was hectic and overwrought.

Rubin, who was capably backed by Aaron Graves on piano, Aaron Walker on drums and Tarik Shah on bass, is the latest in a long line of singers touted as the next Ella Fitzgerald or Sarah Vaughan. But she could become the first to validate these often unjustified claims.