Aria Prame serves up rich jazz notes at Café Amore

For one so young and still so relatively new to the Seattle music scene (she moved here in 2002), Aria Prame carries herself with the grace and maturity of an Etta James or a Nancy Wilson (and not the Heart guitarist, silly).

She performed a standard Ms. Wilson is famous the world over for, the 1955 Buddy Johnson hit, “Save Your Love For Me” – without a flaw to be heard. Prame’s voice was deeply seductive, knowing when to inflect and when to pause. I’ve heard this song sung by others, often as an innocent debutante bemoaning a schoolgirl crush. But in Prame’s hands, this is no schoolgirl or crush; it’s a very adult, very experienced awareness of the trappings of lust and need.

Playing with her core three-piece band (drummer Andre Thomas, pianist Eric Verlinde, and bassist Chuck Kistler) every Thursday night at downtown Seattle’s Café Amore, Aria Prame and friends is more than performance. It’s a kind of jazz performance art, where all kinds of music by all kinds of famous performers can be twisted, turned and toyed with. Prame’s repetoire is so vast that she’s able to whip out a Woody Herman piece, “Early Autumn,” followed shortly by something Patsy Cline used to sing, “Leavin’ On Your Mind,” with all of it sounding decidedly jazzy.

Aria Prame and friends are also known for welcoming onstage other musicians and singers from the audience. Case in point, during this past Thursday’s show, up went saxophonist Clark Gibson, trumpeter Butch Harrison, and my own husband, keyboardist Ed Weber, together and individually, to jam. Regular band member Kistler couldn’t make the early portion of the gig, so Ev Stern had taken his place.

During the performance of Joni Mitchell’s “Centerpiece” (which I kept thinking was “centipede”), I was able to overhear Harrison – a fabulous singer who has the range from a Lou Rawls to an Al Jarreau – praising Gibson’s sax blowing, in jazz-speak. “I like his flavor,” Harrison said, approvingly. “I like it when a player can make it wet.” He and my husband were also thinking up songs that gave them a rough time in transposing during play, from “Lush Life” to “Stella By Starlight.”

You never know who’ll show up. That’s part of the appeal of seeing Aria Prame and her friends every Thursday night, from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. And even if it’s just the featured act, they have enough stuff from their impressive set lists to keep the night interesting.

For more information on this band and other acts, check out Amore Theater Lounge’s Calendar of Events. Or just drop by one evening, at 2301 5th Avenue, downtown Seattle, (206) 770-0606.