By Andrew Poretz***The joint was jumping at Smoke Jazz Club as California-based vocalist Paula West took the stage on the second night of an eight-set residency. West made a rare New York City appearance leading a stellar quartet of pianist John Chin, guitarist Ed Cherry (who
played for Dizzy Gillespie from 1978 to 1992), bassist Sean Conly and percussionist Jerome Jennings.
The venue was tightly packed with a full house of sophisticated, if somewhat laid back, jazz enthusiasts. Remarkably, there were even tables of customers discreetly visible on the stage itself. The vibe of the club, particularly with the customers so close to the band, evoked old movies with New York supper club scenes, with West reminding the audience several times that they were welcome to audibly respond to the music.
The band kicked things off with an outstanding instrumental swinger of “Sweet and Lovely” (Gus Arnheim) with these cats taking solos that made the audience a witness to a musical conversation.
The petite West took a seat at center stage, a cache of blue Saratoga water bottles at her side, to sing Antonio Carlos Jobim’s list song, “The Waters of March.” The arrangement had some tight octave doubling of the piano, guitar and bass reminiscent 
of the George Shearing Quintet sound. The singer has a warm tone and a way with a lyric.
West and the band performed a bluesy “Cow Cow Boogie (Cuma-Ti-Yi-Yi-Ay),” an interesting choice. This number was written by Gene de Paul, Don Raye and Benny Carter for (but cut from) the Abbott & Costello film Ride ‘em Cowboy—a film that introduced the standard “I’ll Remember April” (Gene de 
Paul, Patricia Johnston, Don Raye) and also featured a young Ella Fitzgerald). The song references Harlem and “loco weed.” Yes, there was a pot reference in an Abbott & Costello movie! West noted, to much laughter, adding the song was “more fun when weed was illegal.” The song ended with a fun fadeout, the kind you’d hear on a 45 record.
After a pair of Cole Porter and Rodgers and Hart jazz standards, West made the surprising declaration that Bob Dylan is her favorite composer. To buttress her case, she introduced a wonderful arrangement of “Like a Rolling Stone” that brought some lyrics into focus, with couplets such as “juiced in it” and “used to it” that might have been “lost in the mumble” all these years. Her growl on the repeated phrase, “How does it feel?” was as much a powerful command as it was a question.
Moving on, the star declared, “Not the most natural segue, but we’re going from Dylan to Hoagy Carmichael” with a song about euphoria called “Bread and Gravy,” a relatively obscure song West learned from the 1939 Ethel Waters recording. She followed this with another song she learned from Waters, “Man Wanted” (Leonard Feather). Cherry, who played a rare Barney Kessel signature Gibson, had a feel here reminiscent of the great Allan Reuss.
On “Temptation” (Nacio Herb Brown, Arthur Freed), the title song of her 1997 album, West had Jennings take a long, sensational solo to introduce the piece. West’s singing was powerful and sure.
The penultimate song of the set was perhaps among the biggest highlights: “Gimme a Pigfoot” (Wesley Wilson), which was sung by Bessie Smith at her final recording session in 1933. With West singing playfully about a party “up in Harlem every Saturday night,” the tune evoked the feel of old “Soundies” jukebox films. As she sang, Harlem beckoned from a mile north of Smoke.
The set ended with a party on 105th Street and a super-fast “Lover,” the Rodgers and Hart song most closely associated with Peggy Lee. Chin played frenzied, impeccable piano runs, with what sounded like 32nd and 64th notes, against Conly’s consistent eighth-note backing beat. It was astonishing to watch Conly’s hands as he played bass and treble clefs in unison at that speed.
This was an excellent set for Paula West and her quartet, with superb song choices. She was in fine voice, with spot-on phrasing and interpretation. The quartet was tight, with exciting arrangements and solos that lived up to the club’s name. Here’s hoping West can be enticed back for more residencies at Smoke.
