Rankin Sings With Impressive Versatility

It’s a little difficult to understand why Kenny Rankin so rarely makes it onto the list of first-rate jazz singers. Perhaps he simply spent too many years gaining visibility in the pop world, both as an interpretive performer and a singer-songwriter of his own tunes.

But, as he made amply clear Friday night at La Ve Lee in Studio City, Rankin has been--for a decade or more--a singer whose unusual improvisational skills and innate capacity to deliver a melody with a strong sense of swing stamp him as a consistently appealing jazz artist.

His program was typically far-reaching, sometimes showcasing him as a stand-up singer, sometimes featuring the intimate combination of his voice and acoustic guitar. “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To,” for example, was a straight-ahead vocal, delivered over a simmering, medium groove tempo in which Rankin’s vocal timbres moved easily from his pure head tones to a growling middle register. And here, as in other tunes, he reshaped the melody while retaining the lyrics--an unusually ingenious improvisational approach.

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He sang “ ‘Round Midnight” in surprisingly rhythmic fashion, then shifted to a lovely, arching version of “More Than You Know” that also showcased the bass work of Marco Mendoza. Rankin’s fascination with Brazilian music surfaced in a number titled “Berimbao,” with Mendoza again coming center stage to deliver a solo in which he combined rapid-fire bass lines with his scat vocal.

No Rankin appearance would be complete without a brief set for his voice and guitar featuring some of the Beatles’ tunes he explored so frequently in his early career. In this case, he sang--to an immediate burst of enthusiasm from the sold-out crowd--”Blackbird,” followed by “Penny Lane,” Laura Nyro’s “Time and Love” and Frankie Lymon’s “Why Do Fools Fall in Love.”

It was, by any standard, an impressive performance. And music fans in search of imaginative jazz singing from a mature and intelligent artist would do well to check out Rankin’s future appearances.