The Wolverine Jazz Band started a new Decade of Jazz Tuesday night at the Sherborn Inn, filled with the spirit of a New Year.  It was fun and games as well as fine world class jazz, as the jovial group recreated old arrangements,  taunting and teasing and driving each other to extraordinary, unrestrained jazz.

Jeff has his own special arrangement of Sweet Sixteen, not your usual Dixieland tune.  Tom Boates, resourceful teacher at the Guilford High School in Connecticut,  introduced the tune on trombone, in very slow tempo, sounding like a 33 in 45.  Ross Petot continued the unusually slow tempo on piano, and the rest of the band followed, leaving Jeff scratching his head. But then came his turn.  He charged in with that large tone, vintage cornet and led them straight up into the stratosphere!  Brilliant. (This should really be on You Tube! I'm working on it.)

They pulled the same thing on John Clark on High Society with Boates appropriating Armand Picou's famous clarinet solo on trombone, followed by the piano, and finally they let JC have a turn, and he nailed it on clarinet.  But mixed in all that fun and games was fine, imaginative, and creative, Traditional Jazz and Swing.

It was a fabulous, fun way to start a New Jazz Decade at the Sherborn Inn - the fans all left elated, craving more.  There will be more afternoons and evenings like this.  On March 10th, Johnson & Wales Chef Paul Walsh  will begin  serving a 3-course Senior/Music lunch from 11:30am to 2pm  for just $20 (complete)  - continuing on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month.  (Check the calendar.)

Later, manager Phil Cocco is bringing in fine musicians from Boston and beyond, on Thursdays, twice a month with music styles ranging from Dixieland and Swing to Jazz, Pop and Semi-Classical. 

Stay tuned.

Marce