Young Cincotti at a crossover crossroads

Two years ago singer-pianist Peter Cincotti was on a roll, a young artist singing material from the Great American Songbook with a surprisingly mature and imaginative style. One of the rare emerging male performers to revitalize mainstream jazz vocalizing, he offered a combination of piano and voice that was often compared to the scintillating efforts of Diana Krall.

But Cincotti’s performance at the Walt Disney Concert Hall on Saturday night revealed a considerably different style. The jazz accouterments remained. Tenor saxophonist Scott Kreitzer brought authentic improvising to every one of his solos. And the elements -- the riffs and phrasing -- Cincotti used in his individual excursions were drawn from familiar mainstream jazz vocabulary.

Add to that the presence on the program of a pair of jazz standards -- “St. Louis Blues” and “A Night in Tunisia,” the latter done via a high-speed instrumental version.

Unfortunately, there was little else in the program that recalled either the vocal charm or the cool, piano-driven swing of Cincotti’s earlier work. More disturbingly, the replacement qualities -- primarily his original songs and heavy, pop-style chording -- made it clear that Cincotti’s career has made a sharp turn toward a quest for pop crossover stardom.

If the quality of his songs and the nature of his performance are any indication, it’s going to take a while for the 21-year-old Cincotti to achieve his goal. His originals -- especially “On the Moon,” the title track from his new album -- can best be described as mediocre. And his renderings of standards, once his strongest quality, fell apart in odd, musically scattered versions of “I Love Paris” and “Bali Ha’i.”

Cincotti was aided early in his career by singer-pianist Harry Connick Jr. The influence of that gifted artist is constantly present -- at least in terms of Cincotti’s apparent artistic goals.

But it remains to be seen whether Cincotti has the musical talent and the performing skills to keep pace with such a high standard. And one wonders whether he might not be better off developing the more limited -- but nonetheless engaging and original -- abilities he displayed when he first arrived on the music scene.