CABARET REVIEW : ‘3 B’s’ Pays Tribute to Club Balladry

A recollection of “the glory days of the L.A. Supper Club” is the way singer Rick Miramontez describes his “musical revue” “The 3 B’s: Boleros, Bossa Novas & Broadway.”

He’s right on one count, and a bit shaky on the other. His performance at the Gardenia Saturday evening had a lot more to do with nightclub entertainment than it did with musical revues. Working with a four-piece band in the Gardenia’s tiny performance area, Miramontez--who is also a well-known entertainment business publicist--looked and sounded like an emigre from an El Morocco scene in a 1940s film. He sang a dozen or so songs in English, Spanish and Portuguese, tossed in a reminiscence or two, and added a few kernels of information about the less familiar material.

It was an easygoing diversion enlivened by what Jelly Roll Morton would have characterized as a “Latin tinge.” But, despite a credit for direction by David Galligan, there was little that demanded much in the way of theatrical production. Call it a musical revue only with the most generous of intentions.

Miramontez has a pleasant if not noticeably versatile voice. His renderings of such Latin tunes as “Nosotros” and “Si Me Comprendiedas” were warm and mellow. His Broadway selections--”They Say That Falling in Love,” “I Could Have Danced All Night”--were similarly laid-back, mildly revelatory without pushing the emotional buttons to excess.

The bossa nova numbers, however, fell short of the mark. Although Miramontez’s light-textured timbre and gentle rhythms sounded perfectly appropriate in tunes such as “Manha de Carnival” and a medley of numbers by Antonio Carlos Jobim, his readings were undermined by pianist Ron Abel’s intrusive, extravagantly arpeggiated piano accompaniment. Much of Abel’s support, in fact, seemed mired in a watch-me-conduct-the-orchestra (a quartet, actually) manner, rather than--given the dimensions of the room and the style of the music--a more suitably restrained backing.

Those caveats aside, Miramontez deserves credit for his determined personal effort to keep alive the dwindling flame of nightclub balladry. He won’t be replacing Julio Iglesias any time soon, but it’s great to have a performer remind us of the still-viable musical connections among Latin music, Brazilian bossa nova and American musical theater.

* “The 3 B’s: Boleros, Bossa Novas & Broadway,” Gardenia, 7066 Santa Monica Blvd. Saturdays, 9 p.m. Ends Dec. 30. $12 cover charge; two-drink minimum. (213) 467-7444. Running time: 1 hour.