If he could leave well enough alone, Harry Connick Jr. would roll out the second-rate Sinatra act for each live performance. It's arguably what he does best, and it's probably what his audience wants.

        Instead, the singer/composer/piano player/storyteller/actor presents a mixed bag of styles every time. Mr. Connick opened the Riverbend season Saturday with a pavilion-only show, and the act was typically all over the place. Along with the Sinatra-style big-band swing, there were faux-hipster-jive children's songs, self-penned Broadway show tunes, soul-ballad snoozers, and generally speaking more filler than memorable performances.

        “Songs I Heard,” the name of this big-band-backed tour, refers to his children's album of the same name. He played two songs from it: the Mary Poppins tune “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” and “The Jitterbug,” which he said was written for The Wizard of Oz but didn't make the movie. Both were rendered in Mr. Connick's vision of swing, which is to busy up the horn charts and the arrangements to the point of near-cacophony.

        The kiddie stuff was better received than a three-song peek at his efforts as a Broadway composer. Mr. Connick provided the music for last year's play Thou Shalt Not. (“It opened and closed very quickly,” he admitted to the crowd.) One of the songs, the aptly titled “Tugboat,” slowly crawled forward, causing a sizable chuck of the audience to head for the concession stands.

        Then there was Jonathan Dubose, the guitarist who derailed Mr. Connick's December show at the Aronoff with his incessant facial contortions and baby talk.

        The Riverbend show appeared to be Dubose-free until about 90 minutes in, when Mr. Connick called him to the stage. He played a couple duets with Mr. Connick, and his tasteful solos had a warm, fluid tone, but his mugging ruined it all.

        If Mr. Connick refuses to make like Sinatra, his next best bet would be taking only his piano on the road. The night's best moment was a solo piano-roll homage to his native New Orleans, beginning with a Dixieland-style instrumental and winding its way to “Hey Pocky A-Way.” He made his strongest connection with the crowd with that number, stomping the mambo rhythm with his right foot and reaping louder applause with each stomp.

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