
Retro outfit the Hot Sardines interprets early-jazz classics with a wink and a smile, their musical deftness topped by a hefty helping of great showmanship. And as their wonderfully fun album Welcome Home, Bon Voyage shows, they can sure bring it live.
The album documents shows that the band—singer Elizabeth Bougerol, pianist Evan Palazzo, trombonist J. Walter Hawkes, trumpeter Noah Hocker, clarinetist/saxophonist Nick Myers, drummer/conga player David Berger, bassist Jason Mercer, and tap dancer A.C. Lincoln—performed last year at two venues they consider key to their career: the intimate Joe’s Pub in New York, which booked them when they were starting out, and Toronto’s Koerner Hall, one of the first major venues they sold out.