Moving singer Shiri Zorn into Proctors GE Theater for Thursday’s Jazz on Jay show made double sense; extremely hot weather outside, extremely cool music inside.

Between guitarist Chad McLoughlin at stage left and percussionist Brian Melick stage right, Zorn sat throughout. Gesturing with long-fingered expressive hands, her controlled, cozy voice never pushed things; melodic motion and delivery in emotion both understated and subtle. 

Shiri Zorn, above; the trio, below; from left: Brian Melick, Zorn, Chad McLoughlin

Mostly seated, McLoughlin played understated and subtle, too; high- and mid-range chords under everything, single-note runs in a clean, clear tone in solos. Across the stage, Melick again proved he should be in every band. Zorn rightly called him a “one-man-show,” a singularly musical beat magician. Melick’s mastery of tones underlined each song, adjusting the tone on the cajon where he sat by pressing or releasing his heel against its wood surface. Otherwise, his feet engaged a kick-drum pedal against the back of the cajon and the hi-hat.

Chad McLoughlin, above; Brian Melick, below

Zorn started soft, sparse and slow with “The Nearness of You,” upshifting into a light bossa and stretching “en-cha-a-a-nt” across a handful of notes, then skatting a repeating coda.

“Just In Time” flowed faster at first, Zorn fulfilling her promise to take it apart and sing it back together. McLoughlin opened it up in a kinetic solo and Melick stroked snare and cajon with brushes in a brisk beat rush.

Then Zorn challenged the audience – ever-growing as late-comers drifted across State Street from Jay, where the show wasn’t – to recognize her next tune. She sang its familiar words almost unrecognizably slowly, almost. Both words and melody charmed until, after a calm coda, Zorn asked its title and writer. “”For No One,’ by Paul McCartney,” sang out Dave Vroman a few seats down my row. Dave sang with my brother Jim in bands for years, including the Auratones, which Jim reunited as a surprise for my 50th birthday party. But I digress; and the crowd was delighted by Zorn’s graceful interpretation.

Citing 6/8 Afro-Cuban rhythms and preceding the tune with a poem that set up its theme of love without possessiveness, Zorn next sang “Alone Together,” saluting both McLoughlin’s guitar solo and the explosive break Melick added near the end. Here’s where Zorn dubbed him a “one-man show” and invited him to explain the cajon, the boxy instrument/seat that supplied many of the beats he created Thursday. He also played thumping melodies on molded clay udu drum at times, mostly early and late in the 90-minute set.

After the energetic “Alone Together,” “Born to Be Blue” relaxed both band and audience, a mellow 2 a.m. blues with Melick keeping time on snare and hi-hat, McLoughlin using his volume pedal to shape his notes. It moved in subtle, slow simplicity until Zorn skat-sang through the late verses and coda.

In Jobim’s “How Insensitive” (and Jobim’s later “No More Blues”), Zorn sang in both English and Portuguese, fine and fluent in both languages and tunes. Melick played the snare with his hands in “Insensitive,” also fluently, both McLoughlin and Zorn quietly persuasive in caressing the melody.

Now, everybody sings “Fly Me To the Moon,” but Zorn said they’d perform it in seven, demonstrating this combination of waltz time and four-beats before playing it that way, in what felt Latin and energetic. Melick’s cajon break brought big applause here, well deserved.

Medleying “You Don’t Know What Love Is” with “Yesterdays” (no, not the Beatles’ “Yesterday”) worked well, the slow swing of the former riding on Melick’s softly propulsive brushed snare then flowing straight into the slower-at-first latter; it then sped up. All three really soared here, so Zorn encouraged the audience to participate in the blood drive upstairs. “We’ve got your blood pumping now, so go donate!” she urged.

Echoing the guitar-and-vocal duet of “Detour Ahead” she’d recorded on her debut album “Into Another Land” with George Muscatello, Zorn and McLoughlin charmed this one together. Melick accompanied them at his quietest and most discreet with hand-bells and softly brushed cymbals.

Zorn introduced Jobim’s upbeat “No More Blues,” noting our troubled times provoke too many blues. She sang this brisk bossa at a winning pace as Melick blasted through a volcanic cajon break. Zorn, Melick and McLoughlin balanced beautifully, as they had throughout.

Jazz on Jay continues Thursday, July 9, with Keith Pray.

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