Gary Negbaur comes from the piano tradition, but it’s not necessarily the NOLA one—he’s a Berklee-trained, classically jazz-based New York singer-songwriter, and his traditions run more towards Cole Porter and George Gershwin than Fess and James Booker. Yet here he is at Cafe Istanbul, serving up standards and witty originals alike while exploring the Crescent City jazz roots in his Tin Pan Alley approach. As such, you get versions of both “St. James Infirmary” and Toussaint’s “Play Something Sweet (Brickyard Blues),” both “When the Saints Go Marching In” and “Basin Street Blues,” a jump-blues take on Willie’s “Whiskey River” and “You Are My Sunshine” delivered with a heavy nod to Brother Ray Charles.

As for his originals, they’re playful explorations of trad-jazz and boogie-woogie that lyrically stagger down the same dark Quarter alleyway as any number of local rock-funk bands. “Piety or Desire” is not about streetcar stops, and “Eat at Home” is not about food; songs like “Even the Ugly Ones Are Pretty” sum up that strange mix of freedom and regret that defines the local party scene. It’s unfortunate that as a songwriter, he sings like a songwriter—his melodies don’t come off half as colorful as his settings. Yet it’s lots of fun anyway: Like drinking and dating, you gotta pick your battles.