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This week, it’ll provide the opportunity to hear scat singing from Dennis Hastings.
“I’ve listened to a lot of horn solos, so I know how to make vocal music without words,” said Hastings, who’ll sing Saturday at the cafe with the Joe Baque Trio. “That’s the roots of scat singing.
“Here in Olympia, I’ve been exposed to a lot of great saxophone players, and I was influenced by the late great Jan Stentz, who was a marvelous scat singer. I listened and learned for many years before ever thinking that I could sing at all.”
The monthly jazz night at Waterstreet began in October with Cuban-influenced Ocho Pies, which will play again at the cafe in December for the winter solstice.
“It’s really hard for businesses to put out a guarantee for music groups every single week with this economy, so we wanted to start slowly,” said Michael Olson, a drummer who plays with both Ocho Pies and the Baque trio, and is organizing the monthly concerts. He said as the night becomes more established, he intends to book other bands, too.
The space is good for an intimate concert, Olson said. “It’s like it used to be at The Spar (which hosted a Saturday night jazz series for years). The band is in the dining room across from the bar, so people in the bar can see it.”
Hastings remembers the old days of jazz in Olympia, listening to Stentz, pianist Jack Perciful and singer Ernestine Anderson.
“When I was in my twenties, I used to go out to the Tumwater Conservatory and just sit there and listen to Jack play for hours,” he said. (Despite its name, the Conservatory was a bar on Capitol Boulevard where the South Pacific Restaurant is now.)
“I got a lot of musical information by listening.”
“Dennis is a spectacular jazz singer,” said Olson. “He’s one of the most creative musicians I know, and he’s one of the few male jazz singers in the Northwest who really scats.”
The show Saturday night will focus on Frank Sinatra standards, plus some blues and other classics from the Great American Songbook, Hastings said. He will perform “Oh, What a Night for Love,” a song with lyrics bytalk-show host Steve Allen and sung by another of his inspirations, Mel Torme.
“Mel Torme got kind of short shrift,” Hastings said. “He did a lot of his own arrangements, unlike Sinatra, who sang the standards.”
Hastings admires Torme so much that he did a tribute show to the singer, performing as Torme did with a “dek-tette,” a group with eight horn players and no pianist. He’s currently working on another tribute, this one with a quartet.
He’s looking forward to Saturday night’s show, where he’ll also perform “World That Swings,” which Jerry Lewis sang in “The Nutty Professor,” and “The Best Things Happen When You Dance,” featured in the film “White Christmas.”
“It’s always an honor to play with Joe,” he said. “He has so much experience that it’s almost a little intimidating to me.”
Joe Baque Trio with Dennis Hastings
What: Pianist and local legend Joe Baque plays a late-night show with his trio and jazz vocalist Dennis Hastings. It’s part of the Waterstreet Cafe’s new monthly jazz night.
When: 9:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: The Waterstreet Cafe, 610 Water St. S.W., Olympia
Tickets: No cover charge
Information: 360-709-9090 or waterstreetcafe andbar.com
Up next: Ocho Pies will play Cuban dance music to celebrate the Winter Solstice at 9:30 p.m. Dec. 23.
Also: The restaurant and bar are now open until 1 a.m. on weekends with a happy hour-style, late-night menu.
