Greg Wood

Bob James, Jaystorm and JT, from left, entertain on a Monday evening at Baker Peters Jazz Club.

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Greg Wood

Suzie Hazelwood and Bo McCray enjoy the sounds of soul musician Jaystorm and friends at Baker Peters Jazz Club.

KNOXVILLE — West Knoxville’s Baker Peters Jazz Club has always interested me, despite the fact I’m not their target demographic.

I’ve been several times in the past few years. As a lover of music, I’m drawn to any place that specializes in a particular genre — especially a genre that’s not so popular in the southeast.

These days it seems Baker Peters is hopping. I hear about it more frequently than I ever did before. I read about it in various local publications. I even recently got coupons for several of their entrees and a bottle of wine.

An evening at Baker Peters is a classy affair. The venue is an historic old house turned into a restaurant and bar. The decor is upper class and the atmosphere swanky.

The upstairs bar and performance room looks like a modernized replica of something from the Biltmore estate. It feels like a living room and isn’t much larger than one. On the south side of the lounge are a few couches and a coffee table. I’ve seen bands perform both on this side, which is more spacious and allows for a couch-seated front row area, as well as the other side.

Downstairs there’s an equally classy eating area without live music, for those just wanting to sample the cuisine, which seems to be popular as well. Baker Peters specializes in steak, which their ads and signs don’t fail to point out.

Baker Peters has live music six nights of the week. This is a tall offer for Knoxville clubs. Many venues have wavering schedules and are inconsistent with their live shows. Furthermore, their schedules aren’t updated well online, so knowing what’s happening at a particular venue is often difficult.

But you have very high odds of catching live music at Baker Peters, and it’s usually not something you’ll see very often. Their Web site has their schedule laid out for at least the next month. There are several recurring shows, such as local jazz trio Boling, Brown and Holloway on Thursday nights.

Baker Peters doesn’t stick to just the jazz genre, which disappoints me. The market for jazz is small, I’m sure. But if you’re going to go to so much effort to maintain the atmosphere you may as well stick to jazz — a sophisticated genre. Instead, Baker Peters branches out into blues and even soul. Local soul artist Jaystorm plays an “unplugged” set every Monday night, with an acoustic guitarist and saxophonist.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not disappointed to see Jaystorm, and neither are his fans, as he has quite the following who filled the venue on a recent Monday night. It also doesn’t hurt the venue that they feature multiple genres. At least the common denominator is that the genres are all relatively laid-back and non-aggressive. But for me, it kills the impulse to head to a jazz club on any random weeknight if you know you might not get the sound you’re looking for .

You should prepare to spend over nine bucks for a martini though. The venue offers other beverages which aren’t cheap but are still reasonably priced, but I recommend getting a martini. Not only does it fit the overall attitude of the place, but to this day I’ve still never had a martini as good as the ones I get at Baker Peters.

Mondays through Thursdays, Baker Peters has drink and meal specials. On Wednesdays, all of their martinis are only $5. Recently, they hosted a Scotch tasting and a wine tasting is coming up on Jan. 21. With or without specials, Baker Peters isn’t having a hard time bringing people in. Regardless of prices (which really aren’t unreasonable overall), Baker Peters is one of the most interesting venues in town.