The Mary Jane Jones has grown since vocalist Mandy Pachios started the group as a quartet in 2011 — not just in size, though the band can blossom into an octet and has a deep bench of nearly 25 musicians who know the regular repertoire — but also in style.
What began as a modest jazz-inspired outfit has become a tight act geared toward serious dancing, incorporating soul, R&B, funk, rock and a full horn section for extra punch.
But Pachios recently embraced a way to let the band revisit its simpler, small-scale roots: The Mary Jane Jones has started a weekly residency at Sam’s Pizza in Northampton, playing two sets every Sunday night at 7 p.m. It’s free, air-conditioned and all ages are welcome.
“This gives us an opportunity to go back and do all the jazz standards that I fell in love with,” Pachios said in an interview earlier this week, chatting over a cold pint and a hot basket of salt-and-vinegar fries.
Though she loves the band’s club gigs, she says she’s excited to explore material that doesn’t always fit when the goal is to keep a big room dancing — ballads, gentler swing tunes, tunes with clever lyrics, lullabies.
The Mary Jane Jones currently revolves around a small core of musicians, including Jeff Fennell on saxophone, Josh Hirst on guitar, Forrest Loomis-Dulong on upright bass, and Patrick Brown on drums, and the band is no stranger to residencies, having done two separate monthly ones at the Sierra Grille back in 2013-14.
Frontwoman Pachios, who’s worked at Sam’s as a full-time counter person since November, has long been a fan of live music at the pizzeria and cafe, like the popular Friday night open mic (hosted for nine years by Eva Cappelli, now run by Burrie Jenkins).
Those who’ve strolled along Main Street on a night when Sam’s features live music — especially if the weather is right and the storefront’s big window panels are open wide — have surely been beckoned around the bend by the music spilling across the sidewalks.
When The Mary Jane Jones plays by the windows and Sam’s upright piano (newly tuned every Sunday afternoon), the beacon is often Pachios’ strong voice, whether she’s quietly finessing a jazz standard with minimal accompaniment or rocking out bold and brassy on a blues number.
Last Sunday was the band’s first residency show at Sam’s, and its set list was packed with original songs by Pachios, but also “Feelin’ Good” (made famous by Nina Simone), “St. James Infirmary” (made popular by Louis Armstrong in 1928) and a cover of Kenny Rogers & the First Edition’s “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In),” inspired by the funky and seriously percolating version by Sharon Jones.
The early Sunday-night show time is perfect for Pachios, since other musicians are usually free to attend (the first gig’s audience was peppered with members of such local bands as Outer Stylie and Fat Bradley) and also because it’s inviting to fans, friends and family members who aren’t night owls.
“When we play club shows, they’re late. We headline, we don’t start until 11 o’clock — my mom’s never going to come, my professors from school are never going to come,” she said. “So this is an opportunity for other people to come to the show and catch what we do.”
The residency allows Pachios and the band to be playful and experiment, and she’s looking forward to trying more sparse duets with just vocals and upright bass (she’s a big fan of Sheila Jordan, who soared in such arrangements), plus more scatting and vocal improvisation (including whistling, one of her skills and favorite pastimes).
For the next show on Sunday, one of the special guests will be pianist Paul Kinsman. Pachios said they haven’t played together in four years (he was away in South Korea and Vietnam), but Kinsman was part of the band at its very first show, way back when. An old friend, back in the fold.
Ken Maiuri can be reached at clublandcolumn@gmail.com