Franks Proves Too Bland

The light, lilting vocals of Michael Franks seem especially suited to the cool, bossa nova-paced music of the late Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim. Franks’ most recent album makes much of this connection as Jobim’s spirit permeates the disc.

But appearing at the Wilshire Theatre Saturday night, Franks chose to largely ignore Jobim, instead announcing that he would be digging into “ancient history,” then offering a retrospective of his 20-plus years of recordings.

That ploy certainly pleased his longtime fans, who received each of Franks’ tunes with an overwhelming response. But the historical approach didn’t serve the singer well, instead demonstrating that little has changed in Franks’ always-mellow style since “The Art of Tea” was released in the mid-’70s.

Franks’ blend of soft jazz beats and witty lyrics certainly has its attractions. And Franks’ low-key delivery occasionally developed a certain irony when he sang about more serious matters.

But over the course of the performance, the music all began to sound the same. Franks’ up-and-down sense of melody and light swing marked nearly every tune. Worse, the vocalist’s sweet, pudding-toned sound, airbrushed with plenty of electronically-induced echo, grew irritating as one light-hearted lyric gave way to the next.

The best moments came when Franks finally turned to Jobim’s memory with “Abandoned Garden,” his sad-samba homage to the Brazilian composer. Suddenly there seemed reason for his dulcet, melancholy-filled tones and his delivery of the lyric seemed genuinely heartfelt.

Opening act keyboardist David Benoit also has a reputation for sensitivity and understatement. But Benoit took a wider tack, demonstrating his jazz skills in a trio format, improvising heartily on the blues with his quintet and playing strong back-beat numbers with abandon.

Though sometimes too intent on strong dynamic development, Benoit’s set still held an obvious lesson for singer Franks: Variety is the spice of life.