JAZZ REVIEW : Concert Is Too Little, Too Sedate : James Dapogny’s band, singing Chenille Sisters’ hourlong show is frothy, sweet and lacking in bite.

“Too short!,” yelled a fan at the end of the hourlong (including encore) performance Sunday afternoon by James Dapogny’s eight-piece Chicago Jazz Band and the three singing Chenille Sisters, in the Fine Arts Recital Hall at Orange Coast College.

The fan was right. True, the groups did have another, late-afternoon show to do at the college, but a concert that lasts a scant hour simply is too brief by contemporary standards. The audience tried to coax the musicians to do at least one more tune, but alas, the lights went on and the clapping stopped.

About 175 fans had braved the rain to catch a 16-tune show (billed as “An Entertainment”) that was mostly as frothy, sweet and lacking in bite as decaf cappuccino. Which is not to say the numbers weren’t flavorful: They were arranged with good taste, and each selection was marked by excellent musicianship.

But like the show, the numbers themselves were too cursory. Sometimes a song seemed to be over before you knew it.

For instance, when the Chenilles (Cheryl Dawdy, Grace Morand and Connie Huber, who, like the Dapogny Band, are from Ann Arbor, Mich.) offered a effervescent vocal a la the Andrews Sisters, there were a couple of one-chorus-long solos from the band members. More stretching by the soloists would have given the presentation a much stronger jazz feel.

The show focused mainly on material from the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s. There were three segments from the combined ensembles, and each group got a spot of its own.

A perky “I Want to Be Happy” kicked things off, a bouncy vocal segueing to an invigorating piano solo by Dapogny, who revealed traces of his chief influences (Teddy Wilson, Jess Stacy, Joe Sullivan) and Fats Waller as well, with a dandy stride piano bass line.

A silly “Low Gravy” was followed by three tunes by the Chenilles, two in a modern folk vein and the other a reworking of Richie Valens’ “La Bamba” with tongue-in-cheek English lyrics (“La, la, la, listen to your mama . . . “).

The singers rejoined Dapogny for a pleasantly moody “Little White Lies” (it started out with just vocals and piano; rhythm and horns were added at the bridge), a snappy “Nagasaki” and a zesty “Sentimental Journey” with Dawdy doing the rarely performed opening verse.

Dapogny’s band scored with a somber piece, “It Was a Sad Night in Harlem,” written by Helmy Kresa who, according to Dapogny, transcribed most of the tunes that Irving Berlin composed (Berlin could not read music). Slow and sonorous, the number featured Peter Ferran’s Johnny Hodges-like alto (Ferran also played brisk Goodman-like clarinet elsewhere in the program).

The band also was in good form during “California, Here I Come,” which was given a fast, two-beat, Chicago-style rendition .