A Busy Evening With Pianist Jim Brickman

Jim Brickman took every opportunity he could find in his Friday concert at the Wiltern Theatre to joke about his image as “America’s Romantic Pianist.” But he also appeared to revel in the role, urging an enthusiastic, near-capacity crowd to hold hands and not worry about applauding.

Despite Brickman’s amiable manner and self-deprecating style, however, his music never quite justified its image as romantic underscore to contemporary life. His tunes, most of which blended seamlessly into one another, sounded busy rather than tender, filled with repetitious left-hand arpeggios and tinkling right-hand melodies.

Brickman wrote music for commercials (McDonald’s, 7-Up and AT&T;, among others) before turning to smooth pop, and the experience clearly had an influence upon his music. In true commercial jingle style, his pieces seemed to be founded upon the premise that any musical phrase worth using once is also worth repeating--three, four, five times or more.

He was joined on a few tunes by singer Anne Cochran, whose lovely, dark-toned timbre brought expressive relevance to Brickman’s hit song “Valentine.” And his guest star, saxophonist Dave Koz, proved to be a perfect musical companion, his playing fitting smoothly into both the style and the substance of Brickman’s music.