Jackie Ryan

If you’re looking to entertain some swank relatives on the Eastside this weekend, take them (or better yet, have them take you) to Bake’s Place. This ersatz-homey restaurant/jazz club on the Sammamish Plateau is about the farthest thing from the smoke-choked, lowlife bordellos in which jazz was born, but that doesn’t mean the music is vacuous as a mall soundtrack. The Place has played host to some great players, including Freddy Cole and (soon) Benny Green. This year, Bake’s has been bringing in lesser-known female singers and Jackie Ryan is one of the more promising. Not another dewy-eyed derivative warbler, Ryan backs up her standards with throaty delivery and the sound of life experience; she may actually know what these songs are about. On her recent CD, You and the Night and the Music (OpenArt), with the great veteran Red Holloway, she combines passion and ease, blithely climbing her three-and-a-half octave range, and unearthing some little-known tunes that fully deserve to have the dust blown off. Bake’s Place, 4135 Providence Point Dr. SE, Issaquah, 425-391-3335. 7 p.m. $54.50 for 3-course dinner and show. Also on Saturday, April 12. MARK D. FEFER
Fri., April 11, 7 p.m., 2008