Popular weekly jazz night swings at Green Street Cafe
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I was the new guy in a place Where Everybody Knows Your Name.
The Green Street Cafe in Northampton has been having a jazz jam session every Tuesday night since April 2010; some of the regulars I met this past Tuesday are so regular they can count the few weeks they've missed.
It's a scene for sure and its center is the house trio of pianist Paul Arslanian, bassist George Kaye and drummer Jon Fisher. Their smooth and swinging musical conversation - and supportive and freewheeling way with guests - is clearly bringing people back for more.
Walk in off the street and the band is the first thing to greet you. Twenty folks is all it takes to make the cozy room feel like a packed party. The casual, small space (though the restaurant continues up the stairs with additional rooms) fills with smiles, shouts and salutations when friends come through the door.
There's no stage, just the front window area where the band plays. And when guest musicians sit in - as saxophonist (and WMUA deejay) Ron Freshley and trumpeter (and software developer) Don Anderson did earlier this week - the musicians spread out further into the room, with no divide between band and audience.
The proximity and positivity of people made the place feel like the New England version of New Orleans' venues on Frenchmen Street.
Tuesday night's show was a special one, and not just because it was taking place on Dave Brubeck's 91st birthday. As Arslanian (who doubled as emcee) told the crowded room, "We're featuring all the wonderful vocalists who come here so often." Animated music lovers settled in with their warm spinach salads with caramelized onions, wine a-flowing and baskets of inexpensive empanadas up for grabs at the bar.
First up was George Kelly, but before he could sing, a sharp subsonic shriek of feedback sliced open the laid-back air. Arslanian jumped up from the piano, repositioned the PA speaker, smiled wide and advised Kelly, "Don't move to the left, don't move to the right."
"I'll sit on the floor if you want me to!" Kelly said, microphone poised and ready to go.
Every singer was allowed a three-song set and Kelly's included "All of Me" and "What a Wonderful World" plus the season-appropriate "I'll Be Home For Christmas."
Ellen Cogen finished her set with the '30s standard "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" taken at a snappy-quick tempo, like a plane speeding down a runway; her light voice made the tune lift off and soar.
"We just played a fast song, so George is gonna go ice his knuckles," Arslanian told the audience before taking a five minute break, making sure to mention the tip jar. "We survive by donation."
Laura Pierce, who moved to the area two years ago from Peterborough, N.H., did some scatting on another '30s standard, the Duke Ellington/Irving Mills classic "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)."
Arslanian's solo was a show in itself, starting with a single attitude-filled note, repeating itself stubbornly and off-kilter against the rhythm - but soon it burst out of its antisocial cocoon and bloomed into an all-over-the-88s tour de force.
Carol Abbe Smith, an Easthampton-based jazz singer/fan/organizer (she's a member of the Valley Jazz Divas and ran the E-Town Jazz Jam at PACE some years back), helped arrange the vocalist-centered night and performed her own set.
"If anyone is looking to buy or sell a house, talk to her later," Arslanian joked to the friendly room, referring to Smith's day job as a realtor.
"I love to scat," Smith has said, and her passion for that improvised jazz singing (where the voice imitates an instrument) was undeniable. Smith had a mellow voice but her enunciation of the wordless syllables was emphatic, as though she were coaxing them out of a horn, gently twisting her body around to get out the sound.
New York City-based sax man Jed Levy will be the guest musician at next week's jazz jam session.
