Page Cavanaugh’s Performance Has Reel Appeal

HUNTINGTON BEACH â€”  Between sets of the Page Cavanaugh Trio on Wednesday at Kikuya Restaurant, a video was shown on a projection screen pulled down behind the piano. The film, previously broadcast on the American Movie Classics channel, contained some 50 years of clips and photos showing the night’s headliner in some pretty impressive company.

There was pianist-vocalist Cavanaugh playing the Trocadero Club on L.A.’s Restaurant Row in the ‘40s and accompanying a skinny Frank Sinatra at New York’s Waldorf Hotel in 1946. A youthful Doris Day sang in the 1948 movie “Romance on the High Seas� while standing, then sitting, next to Cavanaugh at the piano. Cavanaugh is seen sharing a piano bench with Michael Feinstein as the two croon a duet.

The video only confirmed what the first set suggested. Cavanaugh, who turns 75 later this month, is a true treasure trove of American popular music, with the experience and credentials to bring an air of authenticity to a musical form that has seen increasing public interest in the last several years. In short, he’s a classic.

The close confines of Kikuya’s mirrored lounge made for an especially intimate show as Cavanaugh introduced songs with anecdotal bits of history, joked with the audience and called for requests. His trio’s performance was equally chummy and knowing.

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With a brandy and a black coffee at the ready on the piano, Cavanaugh led bassist Phil Mallory and drummer Warren Nelson through a slew of mostly familiar tunes, with the occasional rarity thrown in for good measure.

Looking something like Einstein’s little brother, he leaned impishly into the microphone and sang “This Year’s Kisses� after recalling the 1937 movie “On the Avenue,� in which it appeared, and one of its stars, Alice Faye. He answered requests for “Walkin’ My Baby Back Home,� “Cherry� and “Indiana.� He sang the rarely heard verse to the much performed “These Foolish Things.�

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Cavanaugh doesn’t have the finely aged, knockdown voice of Sinatra or Mel Torme, before they were set back by recent illness. A more delicate vocalist, Cavanaugh sang with a vibrato so fine it was often no more than a tremble, an effect that gave his delivery a certain attractive vulnerability. His pitch was in the ballpark, if not right over the plate. His tone, though consistent, wasn’t especially rich.

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Despite this, his singing remained inviting, powered by the sheer enthusiasm he brought to the material. And his piano playing was playful and articulate, dressed with quotes from other songs and engaging repeated figures.

He moved between suggestions of stride and boogie-woogie rhythms during his reading of “Satin Doll,� and his ballad-paced reading of “Indiana� emphasized the tune’s melancholy melody and sense of longing.

Bassist Mallory was likewise energetic and knowing. He joined Cavanaugh for a vocal duet on “Walkin’ My Baby Back Home,� while pulling crisp, bouncy support from his upright. Drummer Nelson remained quietly unobtrusive, pushing the music with brushes, increasing his volume only when trading lines with the pianist on “Satin Doll.�

The group’s up-tempo rendition of “Tea for Two� was a rollicking exercise that danced faster than Gene Kelly, and “Slummin’ on the Avenue� (also from the film “On the Avenue�) came with that carefree, happy-go-lucky mood and tempo that mark so much Depression-era music. Cavanaugh’s ability to carry that music into the present day is what makes him such a musical treasure.