Amid the calm ambience and mellow lights of the Zanzibar club Melissa Pace, her cohort Wayne Christiansen and accompanying musicians perform jazz music each Thursday night.
Pace is a singer, but more importantly, Pace is a jazz singer. Her alto voice is light and smooth, like a good wine, and the inebriation Pace stirs in the hearts of her listeners is better than any stiff drink. Accompanied by Christiansen-an acrobat on the keyboards, often seen juggling a florid jazz piano line with his left hand and a bass riff with his right-the duo kick out the jazz to any and all who will listen.
The show is a spectacle, especially when performed as a duo-Christiansen will even sometimes jump down to a lower keyboard and play the horns, guitar or any number of other wild instruments simultaneously-and on particularly raucous nights, a live horn player, drummer, bass player or contrabass clarinet player might possibly show up to jam.
With invariable grace, Pace and Christiansen embrace the musical additions by merging styles in the way only jazz musicians can.