It was died-and-gone-to-heaven time when I caught Seela's cool jazz combo Torch at the Elephant Room on Friday. I'd heard a bit of Seela's singer-songwriter work, but didn't really fall for her music until I heard her with the swing-based trad jazz band the Jazz Pharoahs. With Torch she moves the clock ahead a bit to late 50's/early 60's West Coast and modal sounds. Sharing the spotlight with her on Friday was phenomenal trumpet player Ephraim Owens, a name I'd read but who I'd never heard before. His atmospheric embellishments behind Seela's vocals and his very melodic solos kept me mesmerised. Seela's hotshot drummer husband Brannen Temple also sat in for one tune, an extremely funky Summertime. I've got to check out Owens' and Temple's other projects, and meanwhile I know where I wish I could be every Friday from 6:00 to 8:00 PM.
The one downside to the Jazz Pharoahs and now Torch is that the musicians don't always seem to be having a lot of fun. Smiles and patter are reserved for their bandmates, not for the audience. Maybe the happy hour audience sucks too badly to deserve their attention, not to mention the meagerness of the tip jar. Pity.
Afterward I walked over to Beerland to check out Horse Wreck, a band whose name I saw a million times on the marquee of the Hole in the Wall. Great name, but so-so music -- a competent cowboy-booted bar band doing covers of 70's "progressive country" songs as well as some original material which tends toward love-dove-moon-June. Their singer can really belt a tune but shows her limitations when she tries to cover Patsy Cline. Okay but not worth braving a smoky dive to hear.