My return to Portland’s resurrected jazz supper club The 1905 wasn’t quite perfect on Sunday, November 2. One couple amid the capacity audience of 50 occasionally raised their voices above the cosmic future-jazz of OHMA. Aside from that blemish, the experience was copacetic.
OHMA, the duo of multi-instrumentalists Mia Garcia and Hailey Niswanger, appeared at the Earshot Jazz Festival in Seattle the previous night. Supplemented by drummer Cory Limuaco, OHMA leaned more into jazz than it did at its 2022 concert at the Midland Theatre in Kansas City.
Both The 1905 and OHMA seem to be flourishing. The club’s atmosphere was even more welcoming than on my previous visit. And Garcia and Niswanger are at the crest of a musical wave that includes fashionable acts like Carlos Niño and SML. Given the $30 cover charge, near-perfection was good enough.