Jazzed up on Lansdowne

In a dark, intimate club on a Saturday night, a band plays uptempo jazz as people sip cocktails and nod to the beat. Two young women jump onstage for some improv scatting. Sax men blow their horns.

We're not talking about a well-known jazz haunt such as Wally's, the Regattabar, Scullers, or Ryles. This is the Modern on Lansdowne Street, one of the smaller venues inside the mammoth Avalon nightclub complex, a place that's normally all about techno nights and sweaty bodies on the dance floor.

``People keep telling me, `People are not going to come down to Lansdowne Street to hear jazz,' " said Meghan Stabile, the 24-year-old promoter who brought live jazz to the club.

But she thinks they will.

Late nights at Avalon are generally about dancing and DJs. Axis hosts a hip-hop dance party, while techno and house DJs from all over the world spin tunes on the main Avalon dance floor after the touring music acts have left the stage. The Modern has hosted various DJs and dance nights, but there has never been a regular scene there.

So the new night at the Modern, what Stabile calls ``Revive Da Live," is a major departure for the nightclub. For a $15 cover ($5 if you make it in before 10) on Saturday nights, the 21-plus crowd can travel between ``Revive" and the popular reggae/hip-hop dance party in the upstairs club Embassy.

Stabile is hoping the loyal Embassy crowd will come downstairs to check out the jazz.

``The crowd is so different upstairs at Embassy," she said, ``but sometimes they trickle down."

Since the jazz night started in August, attendance at ``Revive" has been hot and cold. Two weeks ago, the club was almost empty, with the exception of a few folks who were friends of Stabile's and the band's. But last weekend, it was packed.

Stabile is learning to be patient with the ups and downs. The Berklee College of Music graduate has done this before. She bartended at Wally's Jazz Club for three years while she was in school and helped start a Wedneday night of upbeat jazz (which is more danceable than the slower John Coltrane variety) and hosted some singer showcases.

Now Stabile answers to Ray Montgomery, who runs the clubs in the Avalon complex. Each weekend she travels from New York City, where she's an intern at Def Jam Recordings, to run ``Revive." Her friends in the band J4DA (Jazz Fo' Dat Azz) usually open the night and then back a headliner. The ensemble, fronted by trumpet player Igmar Thomas, used to play Stabile's Wednesday gig at Wally's.

To help build a bigger audience for the night, Stabile occasionally combines jazz bands with local hip-hop acts; she compares the effect to Jay-Z when he's backed by the Roots. It makes the night livelier, she said, and ties it to the action upstairs, where people spend the night dancing to Sean Paul and Rupee. Last week, the house was packed for J4DA and MC Raydar Ellis, who was celebrating a CD release.

Folks in the local hip-hop scene such as Justin Springer, who started a night of live R&B and hip-hop at the Blue Wave on Congress Street, are helping Stabile book acts.

``Our younger generation doesn't understand jazz," she said. ``The hip-hop helps."

The new night of live music supports one of Montgomery's missions for the club nights at Avalon: to diversify the entertainment.

One patron who attended ``Revive Da Live" two weeks ago said it's just what the street has been missing.

``You go to any other city and the main strip of clubs will have at least one place with jazz," he said. ``Not in Boston."

But Paul Poindexter, owner of Wally's, says convincing people that the Modern isn't the average Lansdowne Street venue overflowing with reggaeton and college students will be a challenge.

``She just has to be consistent," he said of Stabile. ``She will need to build a steady contingent of people who want to see what she has to offer."

Poindexter said Stabile is smart to feature the lively jazz of J4DA, which better suits the Lansdowne crowd. He added that Stabile, of all people, has a shot at making it work.

``She's dedicated," he said. ``She's very well known within Berklee. She's a great young lady with a lot of drive."

Stabile said her immediate goal is to keep visitors in the Modern. Lately, those who have come out to her jazz night have been traveling up to Embassy around midnight for the livelier party.

``I don't like that," she said. ``I'm trying to change that."

Meredith Goldstein can be reached at mgoldstein@globe.com.