Jazz Night Under the Truckee Hotel

Jazz night under the Truckee Hotel tonight. A small combo — grand piano, upright bass, drums, trombone — with a singer in a black dress at an old-style microphone, blue-green hair catching the stage lights. Everything washed in purple and pink up there.

They looked young, most of them. The bass player spent a minute wrestling his instrument into position between numbers while the singer stood grinning at the mic, waiting him out. Congas set up next to the drum kit, though I don't remember them getting much use.

By the later sets the trombone player was out front taking solos, and the room had settled in. Ten days before Christmas and this is what a Friday night in Truckee looks like — a few blocks from home, live music, no drive over the pass required. The heads in front of me barely moved the whole show.