There’s just something about jazz.

Patrice Manget, who sings with La Nota Blues and Jazz, says it’s the romance of the genre that attracts her.

“I love jazz,” she said. “I’ve sung blues, country, rock — but I love jazz. Jazz has such beautiful melodies, beautiful lyrics.”

Manget is one of several musicians in the Flathead Valley committed to keeping live jazz alive and well in local venues. To that end, the Flathead Valley Jazz Society is hosting weekly jazz dance parties at the Elks Lodge in Kalispell.

The Jazz Society used to play at the Elks every fall during its Glacier Jazz Stampede, said Karla West, president of the society. The performances have since moved uptown, but the society returned to the Elks in May for its Spring Jazz Roundup.

“We had such a great time there, and there’s such a great dance floor,” West said. “So I spoke to the manager there about having dances on Friday nights.”

The Elks Lodge loved the idea, she said, so the Jazz Society got to work recruiting musicians. There was no money to pay them, but several musicians agreed to a pass-the-hat format.

“They’re doing it out of the goodness of their heart, for the love of the music,” West said.

West, who plays piano on her own and with the Rocky Mountain Rhythm Kings, is one of the musicians playing on a rotating basis at the weekly dances. West has long been committed to keeping jazz alive in the Flathead; in 1994, she helped found the Glacier Jazz Stampede.

That festival has been held every year since, but finding consistent live, local jazz has become more challenging in recent years, she said. That’s why the Jazz Society decided to start the dances.

“We’re trying to keep jazz, live jazz, in the valley, being played on a regular basis,” West said. “The Jazz Society does a monthly jazz dance during the school year, but we typically don’t do those during the summer.

“We’re going to try this on a weekly basis,” she added. “A lot people come through town in the summer, and we’re now at the height of the summer season.”

The dances haven’t been too well-attended thus far, but West is hopeful that will turn around now that summer is in full swing. To garner even more attention, the Jazz Society plans to put fliers in hotels at the south end of town, near the Elks Lodge.

Manget, who played at the Elks with La Nota earlier this month, said there was a “respectable crowd” at the lodge. In addition to the by-donation-only music, the Elks has other draws for would-be attendees, she said.

“The beautiful thing about the Elks Club is it has a huge dance floor,” she said. “It also has a full bar and a full restaurant menu; it’s not just burgers and fries.”

The Elks serves dinner on Friday nights around 6 p.m., West said, which gives people the option of having a sit-down dinner before the music begins around 7:30 p.m.

People at the Elks when La Nota played earlier this month seemed inclined to dance, which Manget loved.

“It’s so wonderful to see people dancing, doing the cha cha and doing I don’t know what,” she said. “Even people who do Western dancing find it really easy to slide into the rhythms we play.”

La Nota — which is scheduled to play at the Elks again Friday night — prides itself on appealing to listeners ages 8 to 80. But Manget said it’s jazz itself that reaches across age groups and genres.

“Everybody loves that kind of music,” she said. “They get there and go, ‘Oh, I know that song.’ ‘Oh, that sounds familiar.’ ‘Oh, I can dance to that.’ It’s a nice surprise for them.”

For more information, visit www.flatheadvalleyjazzsociety.org.

Kristi Albertson, editor of This Week in the Flathead, may be reached at 758-4438 or at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.