On one level 21 year old New Yorker Peter Cincotti is the US equivalent to Jamie Cullum. For starters he’s a pianist, reworks ‘pop’ songs in the jazz vein, adds a modern touch to covers of old classics and offers a smattering of original compositions:so far so similar.
However, where Callum has a grunt to his voice and often adds a ‘crash, bang, wallop’ to his piano delivery, Cincotti is a far more smooth operator. On tracks like his version of Goffen/King’s ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’ and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ‘Bali Ha’i’ this approach veers him dangerously close to the icky jazz-lite that Sting barfs up once in a while. More rewarding is the 70’s funk take of ‘St.Louis Blues’ and the Lalo Schifrin-styled ‘I Love Paris’. The originals ‘On The Moon’, ‘He’s Watching’ and ‘The Girl For Me Tonight’ keep strictly to the ballad route and come lushly string-laden but do highlight a song-writing talent, if somewhat safe. Indeed if he’s not careful he’ll start interesting some of Barry Manilow’s fans – with or without the knickers-throwing. Cincotti’s looks won’t hurt his cause: he appears in Kevin Spacey’s latest, a biopic of Bobby Darin. With career paths in music and film the future looks safe and he may well take off in the way Harry Connick Jnr. did in the eighties, despite the easy listening market bulging at the seams with young bucks these days and its currency reduced with the cheese from Pop Idol as well as artistically bankrupt Irish boy bands.
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So, if on 24th December you're still fretting over that stocking filler for your mum or your gran then ‘On The Moon’ may well be the 11th hour purchase that wins you the last roast potato.
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