Nate Chinen for WBGO – Not many bands have seized the postmillennial early-jazz spotlight with as much gusto as The Hot Sardines. An eight-piece outfit co-led by singer Elizabeth Bougerol and pianist Evan Palazzo, it has devoted more than the last decade to a razzle-dazzle reclamation of prewar swing, often with a healthy dose of humor.
And if you’ve seen The Hot Sardines in action — at a Lower Manhattan haunt, or at the New York Hot Jazz Festival — you know how much oomph they put into their connection with an audience. That’s the secret sauce on their live album Welcome Home, Bon Voyage (Eleven Records), due out on April 19. Produced by Eli Wolf, it was recorded in two bursts at Joe’s Pub in New York and Koerner Hall in Toronto, Ontario.
Read full article and listen to premiere of “Caravan” on WBGO