Jazz Review : Rubin Lacks Intimacy at Jazz Bakery

Vanessa Rubin seems to have everything it takes to become an important jazz singer: a warm, flexible voice; a sturdy sense of rhythm; an excellent ear for harmony and a contract with RCA Records.

Why was it, then, that her initial set at the Jazz Bakery on Thursday night had such a loose, lackluster feeling? Opening-night jitters? The uncertainties of working with a new rhythm section? Possibly--on both counts. But Rubin, whose fourth album, “Vanessa Rubin Sings,” has just been released, has been around long enough to know how to deal with an unfamiliar room. And the rhythm team of pianist Eric Reed, bassist Robert Hurst and drummer Marvin “Smitty” Smith is one that would delight most singers.

Rubin actually worked with great technical efficiency. After a few pitch irregularities on her first number, she asked for an audio adjustment in her monitor speaker, and sang thereafter with characteristic tonal accuracy.

Her choice of material was colorful and far-ranging, from Kermit the Frog’s “Being Green” and Sting’s “It’s Probably Me” to standards such as Jerome Kern’s “All the Things You Are” and the Ralph Burns jazz classic “Early Autumn.”

What was missing was a sense of emotional connection with the music. Rubin demonstrated a striking ability to sing complicated lines, she scatted with ease, and she added attractive improvisational touches to her ballads.

But there almost never was a feeling that she was reaching out to tell her musical stories to the audience.

Only during a lovely reading of “Sophisticated Lady,” accompanied solely by Reed’s marvelous piano, did one perceive her many skills coming together into a coherent musical expression--Rubin the artist emerging through and beyond Rubin the well-crafted vocalist. It will take more performances of that quality to give her career the boost upward that her talents appear to warrant.

* Vanessa Rubin at the Jazz Bakery through tonight, 3233 Helms Ave., (310) 271-9039. $20 admission. Rubin performs one show at 8:30.