A Mellow but Cool Jai

Cutting a dashing figure in his double-breasted suit and tie, English soul crooner Jai blended old-fashioned torch-song melancholy with smooth modern grooves at the Roxy on Tuesday. His reworking of classic genres from R&B; to jazz to pop balladry recalled such contemporary acts as Maxwell and Ben Folds Five.

In an hourlong set drawn from his debut album, “Heaven,” the 24-year-old singer-songwriter and his six-piece band maintained a mostly mellow mood that was true to the record. It was also less sterile, if not much more than the sum of its influences. Still, the sensual ambience the players created fit well with the material.

But Jai’s fluid, high-pitched vocals, though not completely detached, were cool and removed, making the drama a bit two-dimensional. Not that the longing and heartbreak in such numbers as the hip-hop-laced “I Need Love” and the disco-diva ballad “Wishing the Rain Away” were utterly contrived; he just needed to dig a little deeper.

Jai is clearly devoted to his musical influences, and his hybrid sound has a compelling timelessness. He would have been more captivating, though, if he’d displayed as much commitment to expressing emotions. His occasional bursts of passion--a long, sustained note here, a piercing soul scream there--came off more as exercises of vocal prowess than intimations of the heart.