Maia Santell, performing New Year's Eve at Johnny's Dock Restaurant & Marina, is a name you should know. With a vocal timbre reminiscent of Rosemary Clooney, she and her venerable backing band, House Blend, are stars of contemporary jazz and blues in Tacoma. Her parents and uncle were fixtures in the Seattle jazz scene of the 1940s. Such artists played genteel music for paying customers during the evening. Then, they'd reconvene after hours in more raucous joints like the Black and Tan, Congo, and Cabbie Club, many of which were clustered around Jackson Street in the International District. "I have found children and grandchildren of all these people that used to work with my people," Santell said, meaning her talented forebears. "There's nothing like that (scene) anymore."

She describes the South Sound's present-day audience as "eclectic. They like everything, and they demand everything. And every tune has to be a different tempo, a different style, a different groove."

So how does a performer adjust for the, shall we say, idiosyncrasies of a New Year's Eve performance? "It's different from a dance gig," she said. "At Johnny's Dock, it's much more celebratory, because it brings the listening crowd in at a later time of night. We have to rock starting around ten o'clock, because people will already be in that frame of mind." By way of clarification, that frame of mind involves the merry consumption of bottles of champagne. "There ya go," Santell agreed, chuckling.

"Many of them," she said, "will come to Johnny's early, because the food is so great; but because it's not an advance-reservation event, I think a lot of people will come in off the street. It's like playing in my own living room. My band packs that venue every time we play." The "celebratory" nature of the holiday will require an appropriately energetic playlist. "We'll do Stevie Ray Vaughn, Creedence Clearwater, in addition to standards like ‘What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?' Of course, everyone wants to sing along with ‘Auld Lang Syne.' I prefer the funk and Motown, like James Brown's ‘I Got You (I Feel Good).' Everyone wants to hear ‘Mustang Sally.' That's almost a joke among musicians. Back in the old days, when my uncle was a jazz performer and they asked him to do ‘Louie Louie,' he found it demeaning because he was a jazzster. He would play it for twenty minutes just to be a smartass."

MAIA SANTELL AND HOUSE BLEND, 9:30 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 31, Johnny's Dock and Marina, 1900 E. D St., Tacoma, 253.627.3186