The cat sitting at the table in front of me is rockin' like a hurricane. He's swaying forward and backward in his chair so hard, with such momentum, I fear he might take off and blast through the small stage in the alcove. On that stage, blonde-tousled, sultry vocalist Pamela Pentony is scatting, swaying, wooing the mike, snapping her fingers. Beads of sweat slide down the sax player's forehead, his eyes bulging from the intensity of his playing. Behind him, the bassist is lost in his own delirium. The look on the drummer's face looks like sheer agony as he flails. There's an unusual number of horns tonight-a new trumpet player is quaking the house; he then steps aside as a new young sax player enlists.

I accidentally stumbled upon this weekly scene a few months back at The Chowhound Cafe, a cozy bistro in the middle of Saugerties, and it's become my favorite good habit. Since last October, Pentony's filled the place every Sunday night-the chairs with mesmerized listeners, and the air with the finest improv jazz. With different players and singers stepping onstage week after week, one might think it's an open mike. But Pentony says it's not.

"That's a different thing," she explains in a speaking voice that's as silky as a whisper. "It's a jam. It's open, welcoming, and supportive of whoever comes to play, whether they're fine, seasoned musicians who we know who've come from New York City and Albany, or whether they're our students getting up there for the first time."

By "our" Pentony means those students she and co-host John Esposito teach at Bard. Pentony's an adjunct teaching singing and jazz choral, while Esposito's a working musician and a professor teaching harmony and piano. Known by many as "The Piano God," Esposito can't join Pentony every week due to his hectic schedule.

These two teachers have definite opinions about what's going on in jazz music education today-most instructors aren't presenting the early works, for one thing, which Pentony and Esposito see as a crucial basis for the genre. Many teachers start with the works of the 1920s; these two dig into the roots of the 1890s. Last semester they taught a Tin Pan Alley repertoire-Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Johnny Mercer, Duke Ellington, and some of the really early artists, moving through them chronologically.

"In a lot of music education, kids aren't learning the early stuff," says Pentony. "We teach lots and lots of tunes, so they come out prepared. If you're hired to play a gig, if you want to be a working musician, you have to be able to play tunes!" She laughs. "You can't just know a chord and read a chart; you have to know structure. Honestly, there are only about seven tunes in the world-the structure, the shape of them-so we teach them, and the students begin to recognize the relationships. And singers are what keep the songs alive. We ferret out the lyric and verse and keep it going, like an oral tradition."

And that tradition continues to be passed on as these students participate in the jam. Not only are they afforded a wonderfully supportive atmosphere in which to play, but they are also able to meet seasoned musicians with whom to study. Pentony does hire a rhythm section-Lew Scott on bass and Pete O'Brien on drums-and this core band begins each session. "I don't want this to be tired, I want it to be sparkling, spectacular!" she emphasizes. "And it usually is. It can be difficult, especially for a singer who's in a certain key, if the musicians are not capable of transposing to that key. It's not a good learning situation. So we keep the level very high."

According to the host, some of these seasoned players-to cover all ground-have "played with everybody." There's drummer Master Marvin "Bugalu" Smith on drums, who always has a few tricks up his sleeve; bassists Rob Kopec, Tom Charlap, and legendary Alan Murphy; Albany's Mitch Kessler on sax; and even guitarist Mike DeMicco and sax player Brian Madden play on occasion. These adepts are happy to hand their improv spirit down to the younger crowd.

"It's really about passing it on," Pentony says. "Jazz has had a resurgence, but oddly enough there's this hidebound thing where people only play things from the '60s, and they're not really experimenting or investigating. Jazz is supposed to be free music that goes forward, so those of us who carry that in our hearts are trying to pass it on to the younger generation."

Ultimately this jam gets down to the heart and spirit of the matter, and you feel it when you walk in, when you sit and listen, when the warm, tasty vibe penetrates you to the marrow. Kicking back to this fabulous music and enjoying a meal and glass of wine has become the perfect way to end a weekend for everyone involved. Last year, when Pentony approached owner Candida Ellis with the idea, she told her of the jam she once hosted in Greene County where patrons were six-deep at the bar. Ellis conceded. "She's very committed to the music," says Pentony. "Her great heart enables the music to happen."