Reviewers aren't supposed to talk too much about a performer's looks, but let's just get it out of the way: Jazz singer Paula West has a face that could someday make her one of the Great Ones.
That this San Francisco talent has the voice for entry into the pantheon has already been well established.
"I like great singers -- Ella, Sarah," said Eric Reed, the pianist and leader of the trio accompanying West on her five-week stand at the Plush Room. "(Paula's) right up there, as far as I'm concerned."
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Some voices are astringent like gin, some sweet like sherry. West has a red wine voice -- a deep, mellow Cabernet voice. And she's blessed with Ella-mentary precision and pitch control, too. With her vocal chops amply demonstrated at the Plush Room, West went for the heart on the evening's first ballad, a medley of "You Don't Know What Love Is" and "When Your Lover Has Gone." All creamy, elongated vowels, with a bit of pain-edged husk, it actually made a woman in the front row cry.
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