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In the months since the closure of The 1905, the pizzeria and jazz club just off North Mississippi Avenue, Portland’s rich community of jazz musicians—especially those emerging artists currently studying at Portland State University—has been scrambling a bit to find stage time.
Kudos is due, then, to a space like the Atlantis Lounge for helping fill that gap with events like last Monday’s performance by vocalist Zyanna Melada backed by pianist George Colligan and a pair of his students from PSU: drummer Dae Bryant and bassist Robert Rodriguez.
On her most recent EP, Soul Angel, Melada proves herself skillful at adapting to modes of soul, R&B and, on the title track, even a bit of alt-rock. At the Atlantis, she worked elements of those sounds into what was ostensibly a pure jazz gig.
The quartet’s version of “Soul Angel” was a slow burn with Melada squeezing every ounce of blood out of the poetic lyrical phrase, “I’ll stay warm till I’m dead.” And earlier in the set, a pulsating take on the standard “Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise” let Melada call on the spirits of vocalists like June Tyson in her phrasing and timbre and Betty Carter in her well-honed scat breakdown.
Melada, though, only pushed the envelope so far. In fact, notes of restraint rippled through much of the night, as if the players were holding themselves back from going too far beyond. It was left up to guest vocalist Davasate Phelps to add a spark to the proceedings, popping up to bring some wild dissonance and neo-soul fervor to Cole Porter’s “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To.”