Other Hours (2003)

From the opening left-hand rumble and staccato chords of ''What a Waste,'' this star of nightclubs, screen, and TV lets you know he's playing jazzman -- through long, lightly swinging instrumental takes on songs he composed for Broadway's Thou Shalt Not. But it comes off as an awkward period piece, with pianist Connick as a Tin Pan Alley-era hack leading a quartet of character actors. His competence and surprising restraint can't rescue a mostly by-the-numbers performance.