JAZZ REVIEW : Silverman Has Learned Well From Southern

Pianist and singer David Silverman, who appears three nights a week at the Smoke House in Burbank, is a student of Jeri Southern, who since her own performing days ended in the 1960s has been a busy teacher of piano and voice.

Silverman has learned well. His piano, displaying no trace of bebop, steers down the middle of the road. His single-note lines often have an attractive behind-the-beat tendency. He also makes good use of two-handed chording and his choice of tunes mixes standards with such lesser-known but handsome vehicles as Alec Wilder’s “Give Me Time” and the Fats Domino hit “I’m Walkin’.”

As a singer, he has a pleading, sometimes confidential quality, well-suited to such ballads as “Just for a Thrill.” His diction is flawless.

Everything about Silverman is diminutive: his stature, his hands (one wonders how he manages even to stretch a tenth) and his voice, which could use a little practice in the upper register, where his intonation fails him now and then. But the overall impression is that of a consistently listenable artist. He is accompanied Thursdays by bassist Monty Budwig and on Fridays and Saturdays by drummer Paul Kreibich.

* Smoke House, 4420 Lakeside Drive, Burbank. (818) 845-3731. Thursdays through Saturdays.