“The Best 93 Year Old Cornet Player Around”

With the cleverest band name I’ve ever heard, The Night Blooming Jazzmen have entertained and impressed traditional jazz fans since 1975. The band was originally started as a pick-up band to represent the Society for the Preservation of Dixieland Jazz at the third Sacramento Jubilee. However, they were so well received (and also had so much fun) they decided to stay together. After all these years, they continue to be among the most in-demand bands at jazz festivals and events. It’s hard to stump them with trad tunes they don’t know. I’m guessing by now they must have put together a band book of old—and older—songs about the size of a woolly mammoth. This popular band has the repertoire and talent to make every concert unique and fun—having done so since Gerald Ford was President and my waist line was 34. “The Night-Bloomers,” as they are nicknamed, opened the program with “Muskrat Ramble,” a rousing instrumental version of Kid Ory’s Dixieland standard, calculated to get trad fans’ corpuscles moving faster. Pianist Vinnie Armstrong responded to the rhythm of this driving tune, bouncing his entire body to the point of becoming slightly airborne, lifting up off his piano bench on the beat. Bandleader Chet Jaeger later announced before Vinnie was going to play and sing a slower Louis Armstrong tune, “That’s My Home,” that “He does the song because he i