Bridgewater’s Full Range Gets Lost in High-Energy Show

Jazz singing is a complicated mixture of elements--among them, the capacity to generate rhythmic swing, an understanding of improvisation, respect for a song’s story, a good ear and a little attitude thrown in for good measure. The variations between these elements--more of one, less of another--is what makes for the differences between singers. And listeners will tend to favor those singers who most thoroughly reflect their own preferences.

Dee Dee Bridgewater’s appearance at Catalina Bar & Grill Tuesday night was an example of what can happen when those elements shift within the work of an individual performer. At her best, Bridgewater is a marvelously diverse artist, capable of moving easily from hard-driving scat singing to luscious balladry. In those moments, her physical skills as a dancer and an actress serve her well, subtly supporting the primary thrust of her musical imagination.

For this performance, however, Bridgewater was almost completely captivated by a high-energy mood, stimulated and urged on by the effusive responses she kept receiving from old friends in the full-house crowd. As a result, the very first number she sang, Miles Davis’ “All Blues,” almost instantly became a vehicle for an intense, high-voltage scat singing excursion.

Other pieces in the set sustained the fervor, dipping into gentler waters only during the course of a pair of brief ballads--notably Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “How Insensitive.” Even here, the flow of softer phrasing was frequently interrupted by sudden emotional peaks. And her rendering of “Just Friends” sacrificed the song’s wistful message to a barrage of rhythm.

There’s no denying the quality of what Bridgewater did have to offer. She is one of the few singers with convincing improvisational abilities, and much of her soloing was first-rate, both rhythmically and harmonically. The interaction with her trio--keyboardist Thierry Eliez, bassist Thomas Bramerie and drummer Ali Jackson--was also superb, filled with collective subtleties.

But Bridgewater is too gifted a performer, too complete an artist to be fully content with a monochromatic presentation, one that fails to fully display the breadth and the scope of her skills. One can only hope that the balance of her run, which continues through Sunday, will offer a more complete musical portrait.

* Dee Dee Bridgewater at Catalina Bar & Grill through Sunday. 1640 N. Cahuenga Blvd., (323) 466-2210. $30 cover today and Saturday at 8:30 p.m.; $25 cover today and Saturday at 10:30 p.m.; and Sunday at 7 and 9 p.m. Two-drink minimum.