The Hot Sardines
Take a blustery brass lineup, layer it over a rhythm section led by a salty stride-piano virtuoso in the Fats Waller vein, and tie the whole thing together with a one-of-the-boys frontwoman with a voice from another era, and you have the Hot Sardines. The Sardine sound – hot jazz from Prohibition-Era Bourbon Street to the cabarets of Paris – is the kind of music Louis Armstrong, Django Reinhardt and Waller used to make: straight-up, foot-stomping jazz. (Literally – the band includes a tap dancer whose feet count as two members of the rhythm section). They manage to invoke the sounds of a near-century ago and stay resolutely in step with the current age. Even while giving voice to the history-defining jazz of the 1920’s, 30’s, and 40’s, the Hot Sardines’ vibrant performances bridge generations and captivate 21st century audiences. Vanity Fair applauds their “unique repertoire, and a sound and style that are distinctly their own,” and Forbes Magazine calls them “one of the best jazz bands in NYC today.”