Riffing on a prayer: Jazz vespers every week in San Diego

The vibe at Croce’s restaurant had its usual jump. People were there for the food and drink, but patrons at the San Diego establishment—named for folk musician Jim Croce—knew they’d get good music too.

The performer was Archie Thompson, who played jazz, blues, and rhythm and blues on piano and saxophone. Sometimes he’d play saxophone with one hand and piano with the other. Thompson and his band, the Archtones, had the place rocking, as they had been doing every Sunday night for 13 years. The songs included Ray Charles’s “I’m Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town” and Mose Allison’s “Fool’s Paradise,” and the music blasted out onto Fifth Avenue in the city’s Gaslamp Quarter.

One customer caught Thompson’s attention—a man who had procured a table near the band, directly in Thompson’s sight line. It was clear that he wasn’t there just for dinner or drinks. He scrutinized Thompson, looking neither pleased nor displeased. Thompson remembers thinking that perhaps the man was looking down his nose at the band. “He was clearly analyzing us.”