by S. Rotan Hale
You never know what to expect when you have the opportunity to take in a show at the Jefferson Center. Whether you’re familiar with the featured artist or not the experience can go in a world of directions.
In no way was the crowd prepared for the two-set show Nicole Zuraitis and her trio brought to the venue. The club setting provides an up-close and personal experience coupled with the incredibly well-balanced acoustics of the room and to have on stage such an accomplished, deeply penetrating performer, as Zuraitis truly is, pushes the envelope of musical ecstasy to heights beyond.
Now that may sound a little over the top but… hey, you just had to be there to understand what happened on that magical night Thursday, March 5 at Jeff Center’s Jazz Club.
Zuraitis is a multi-award-winning singer-songwriter, pianist and arranger who has won two Grammys – one in 2024 for Best Jazz Vocal Album for How Love Begins and another in 2025 for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for Bianca Reimagined: Music For Paws And Persistence. Although she’s considered a jazz artist, Zuraitis has roots in opera as she stated on stage that night.
Considering her depth, vocal range and her choice of song selections her music ventures outside of any confining typical jazz labeling as was evidenced during the show.
From the moment she stepped on stage with her bold beautiful charming presence, she took command with a spirit that makes you want to totally submit to the layers of melodic majesty she and her band create. During her good humored between-song banter Zuraitis spoke to the audience with a graceful aire that was pure and genuine.
An artist like this must be backed by equally talented musicians that complete, enhance and therefore elevate the experience thereof. And talented they were – as bassist Sam Weber and drummer Dan Pugach were more than just ample accompaniment, they were the proficient team that provided the smooth solid rhythm and the ultra-syncopated cadence on which Zuraitis so masterfully soared through song after song.
However it was guitarist Idan Morim who stood trance-like in the colorful shadows of the stage lights strumming through riffs and chords weaving his tapestry of sound that added a certain celestial ambiance to each tune the group played. Oh what a night it was!
The hour-and-a-half set of mostly originals opened with All Stars Lead to You a song she wrote about “people who think the world revolves around them,” she said. The tune is featured on her Live at Vic’s Las Vegas album.
Once seated at the piano, Zuraitis followed with Two Fish, a snappy, bluesy number on which Weber delicately fingered through the only bass solo of the set.
Another original, Hardest Part was an unreleased tune set to be on her next album The Devil I Knew scheduled for a July 2026 release. It was one of several hauntingly beautiful tunes of the night thanks to the extremely colorful guitar licks by Morim.
Not many people can outdo the classic crooning of the legendary Ray Charles particularly on his quintessential hit Georgia on My Mind (by Hoagy Carmichael) but that surely doesn’t apply to Zuraitis who tackled it with the greatest of lyrical ease.
Against a background of tinkling piano chords she softly told the story of receiving her first Grammy at the awards event in 2024 and to her amazement, in the audience was none other than the legendary songstress, and her idle, Joni Mitchell who personally congratulated her in a cherishable moment Zuraitis will certainly never forget.
Her story was the perfect intro into Mitchell’s The Dawntreader from her first album Songs for a Seagull, (circa 1967). Zuraitis’ spellbinding rendition of the song with the band tip-toeing through the melody, was almost as classic and dreamlike as Mitchell’s original.
Zuraitis really showed off vocally on I Dare You Call My Name and an extended version of the very popular standard Everything Must Change. She had the audience join her on a rousing rendition of Melanie Sofka’s Brand New (Rollerskate) Key and spoke of Sofka’s status as one of the many famed luminaries of the 70’s era Woodstock Festival. Winding things down she chose to treat the audience to another song The Devil I Knew from her unreleased album by the same name and closed with a “slam bam’in” bluesy rendition of Nina Simone’s Do I Move You which everyone in the hall, staff included, stood applauding “truly moved” by the entire soul-stirring performance of Nicole Zuraitis and her band, closing another great night at the Jeff Center.
