JAZZ REVIEW : Gantt’s Strengths Nearly Overpower Standards Program : The singer displays almost too much talent at Bistango, where he uses all his agility in a single rendition instead of taking a stylistic stance.

IRVINE —  Bobby Gantt has a lot going for him, sometimes maybe too much.

Like fellow jazz singer Ernie Andrews, Gantt is extremely comfortable in two ranges: a deep, chesty baritone that can shake a table and evoke images of Billy Eckstine and Al Hibbler, and an alternately clear and breathy head-tone tenor that occasionally recalls Al Jarreau, or even Johnny Mathis.

Working Wednesday in the lounge at Bistango (where music is on tap seven nights a week and Gantt is in the spotlight every Wednesday and Thursday), he applied the two, equally ear-pleasing voices to a solid program of standards and jazz tunes that included “That’s All,” “Moody’s Mood for Love,” “Wave” and “Unforgettable.” He sang in an amazingly liquid manner, swooping with consummate ease from, say, a rich and resonant bottom tone from a pencil-thin high one.

Gantt--who is based in Los Angeles and who has been singing professionally for more than 20 years, having backed-up B.B. King, Kenny Rogers and Marvin Gaye--also demonstrated an excellent jazz feel, never losing his way through the rhythms of a song, and swinging heartily most of the time.

He took his share of latitudes with lyrics, dragging them out as if they were rubber bands. He delighted in stretching, or hurrying them up, as if he might forget them if he didn’t sing them fast. Yet he stayed right on track with his accompanists, the facile keyboardist Eddie Ambrose, who also provided bass lines on a synthesizer, and tenor saxophonist Robert Givens (sitting in for Gantt’s usual saxman, Doug Webb).

Gantt displayed another two prominent strengths during his third set, when he sang such evergreens as “Misty,” “The Very Thought of You” and the classic blues “Goin’ to Chicago”: excellent diction, so that if he changed registers in a flash or added extra syllables to a word, you still knew what he was saying; and first-rate intonation, as he sang right into the center of notes, hitting the bulls-eye pitch-wise at every turn.

If it was all so good, what was missing? Gantt, if anything, is too talented; he rarely constrains himself from using all his vocal agility in the course of a single rendition. We hear all the influences, swirling about one after the other, but end up wondering who is the real Bobby Gantt. By sticking more to a single stylistic stance during a given tune, he might emerge from relative obscurity and make a larger name for himself.

The set began with Givens and Ambrose offering a lilting version of Kenny Dorham’s “Blue Bossa,” whereupon Gantt arrived with the snappy, waltz-time blues “Better Than Anything,” extending the last word, “love,” for several seconds. He took “Misty” at a delicious, finger-popping medium swing and followed with “Moody’s Mood,” deftly employing his upper tenor range during the bridge to imitate a women’s voice.

Perhaps the highlight was his ballad medley, starting with “That’s All,” moving seamlessly into “The Very Thought of You” and closing with “Unforgettable.” Throughout these selections, Gantt didn’t do quite as much shifting from one range to the next, and the result was a more personal touch.

* Bobby Gantt sings Wednesdays and Thursdays from 7:30 p.m. to midnight at Bistango, 19100 Van Karmen Ave., Irvine. No cover, no minimum. (714) 752-5222. Dec. 11 and 12 from 8 p.m. to 12:30, he’ll be at Waters Restaurant, 4615 Barranca Parkway, Irvine. (714) 733-9503.