On a recent Friday night at Arthur's Tavern-a tiny wood-paneled bar on Grove Street, in the West Village, next to the piano bar Marie's Crisis-just a couple tables were occupied at 9:45 p.m., when a jazz quartet led by a young Japanese woman named Eri Yamamoto was finishing up its set. At Arthur's Tavern, which opened in 1937, there is no cover, but there is a two-drink minimum per set, payable in cash.

Soon a few more musicians filed into the place, carrying their instruments on their backs or shoulders, and set up as the first band was breaking down their set. We ordered drinks (vodka soda, splash of cranberry; for my companion, a Bud Light). It was the night after Michael Jackson had died. The band that goes on at 10 on Thursdays and Fridays, which is called Off the Hook, opened its set with "Rock With You"-or maybe it was "Wanna Be Startin' Something"-and the crowd cheered and the tourists danced, and some of them played air guitar.

Arthur's Tavern is the kind of place that is empty one moment and packed the next, and suddenly the pretty waitress with the long brown hair and the tight jeans had disappeared. Another vodka soda with a splash of cran was needed. On the wall are paraphernalia from decades past: faded blow-ups of old New York magazine reviews; signs that say "no dancing," which are ignored; a large banner advertising the 1995 Panasonic Village Jazz Festival.

But the main attraction is a singer named Sweet Georgia Brown. Ms. Brown, who was born in South Carolina and is a former winner of Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater, is of indeterminate age. She is a heavyset woman with caramel-colored skin. She was wearing a black lace dress and a cream-colored fedora, and gold hoop earrings, and the first song she performed was "Hold On, I'm Comin'," the 1966 Sam & Dave song written by Isaac Hayes and David Porter.

Ms. Brown has a deep, throaty voice, and she sings like it might be the last night on earth. People were taking photographs and so she turned around and showed the audience her ample behind, and said: "Take a picture of this, bitch!"

The song was still going. It was the longest version of "Hold On, I'm Comin'" ever played. "Is there anyone that wants to come tonight?" Ms. Brown inquired. "Coming!" sang the rest of the band.

"If you don't put money in this jar, you won't be having sex tonight," said the bandleader. Everyone put money in the jar.

Previously: Hiram S. Thomas, the Troublesome Colored Man of Fort Greene