A Sweet Collaboration of Singer, Pianist

Fans of jazz singing will find no better place to satisfy their musical cravings than Ca Del Sole Ristorante in North Hollywood. The restaurant’s intimate performance room programs singers seven nights a week (with an occasional instrumental evening thrown in for variety) featuring such talented local artists as Julie Kelly, Stephanie Haynes, Sandra Booker and others.

On Saturday night, singer Cathy Segal-Garcia was in the spotlight, accompanied by the first-rate jazz piano playing of Shelly Berg. And the contrast between the two was a fascinating example of the fashion in which jazz artists can mold and adjust their styles to the demands of different settings.

Segal-Garcia’s most compelling quality is a warm, dark sound, luxurious enough to wrap a song in an envelope of lush timbres. And on standards such as “For All We Know,” “When Sunny Gets Blue” and “I’ll Be Around,” she did just that. At her best when she illuminated melodies with her sound rather than her variations, she delivered renderings that brought both the themes and the lyrics to life.

She was less effective with up-tempos such as “Give Me the Simple Life,” in which the sole accompaniment of Berg’s boppish, right-hand-oriented piano lines failed to provide sufficient rhythmic drive for Segal-Garcia’s not-always dependable fast-tune articulation.

Aside from quicker-paced numbers, Berg was a solid accompanist, laying down especially attractive harmonic textures on the ballads. In his solo passages, however, he quickly abandoned the chordal-based qualities of his backup work in favor of rapid, often double-timed soloing. Sometimes it worked; he can be an imaginative improviser. Sometimes it didn’t--especially when his rhythmic propulsion slipped away from contact with the basic meter.

But there was no denying the pleasure of hearing two talented artists finding common musical ground, and doing so in an intimate setting--one that allowed a roomful of responsive listeners to share the music, up close and personal.

* Ca Del Sole Ristorante, 4100 Cahuenga Blvd., North Hollywood. No cover charge. Mondays to Thursdays, 7-11 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m.-midnight. (818) 985-4669.