Vocally there are comparisons to Mammina's brassy range. There's a hint of Ricky Lee Jones breathyness in her sentimental lower register, but, unlike Jones, Mammina doesn't let lyrics that matter get away.

She unwinds a song as if each word dangled from a string of twinkling charms and delicately snaps consonants like wishbones. She's lyrical even when she scats, composing in a language someone somewhere in the universe understands even if you don't. There's a little of that girlish Billy Holiday in her middle range, without the Lush Life desperation, and up high her tone has full, round Tony Childs power, which Mammina aptly shape-shifts before it gets too proud.

Mammina's style is her own. She has gentle fun with a repertoire of standards, unexpected pop, and inventive originals that in less playful hands might go schmaltzy. She doesn't just cover Warren Zevon, Elvis Costello and James Taylor, she reupholsters them. She takes the sleeves off "Everyday I Write the Book," unwrinkles a bedspread version of "Song for You Far Away," and she slices open a witty, slinky, skirt-splitting "Watching the Detectives" - over Andre Bush's sinister, shruggy around-the-block base line. (She tagged the tune with the punchline of the night, "...I like Barney Miller, too!") The music became real magic in the heart of "My Funny Valentine," which Mammina performed by request, and again when she muted a scat that sounded like a vocal tribute to Miles Davis.

Bush's electric guitar accompaniment deserves mention. Fun for him is letting Mammina be astounding. He knows the signs. When the song says DON'T WALK, he plays like a kid tight-roping the curb beside his older sister. When the song says, WALK he's still a kid, teasing the melody just enough. He's a funny guy, too. If gigs were bank heists Bush would point his sawed-off guitar and Cagney the hostages: Don't anybody move. Stay right where you are. Get your hands up and listen to the lady sing, dammit!

The story goes that Jenna Mammina's mom and dad told her to sing anywhere, any time of day or night. Thanks Mom. Thanks Dad. Somehow she made it all the way to Alamosa. A few warm, sweet, intimate bars into "A Moment's Magic" we were ready to listen to her night and day.