Hot Sardines to Play Smothers Theatre in January

The Hot Sardines reinvent "hot jazz" for the 21st century at Pepperdine University's Smothers Theatre in Malibu on Thursday, January 15 at 8 p.m.

Tickets, priced starting at $15 for the public and $10 for full-time Pepperdine students, are available now by calling (310) 506-4522 or online at http://arts.pepperdine.edu/. More information: http://hotsardines.com/.

Take a blustery brass lineup, layer it over a rhythm section led by a stride-piano virtuoso in the Fats Waller vein, and tie the whole thing together with a one-of-the-boys front-woman with a voice from another era, and you have the Hot Sardines, playing "hot jazz" as it was in the era when live music was king...with a little glamour, a little grit, and a lot of passion.

The brainchild of Bandleader Evan "Bibs" Palazzo and Miz Elizabeth, the Sardine sound fuses musical influences from New York, Paris, and New Orleans that were nurtured from the Prohibition era through the Great Depression, WWII and beyond. "Greats like Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Django Reinhardt, Count Basie, Fred Astaire, Mamie Smith, Billie Holiday, the Andrews Sisters, Ray Charles and a full-on melting pot of musicians both iconic and obscure have influenced our style and song interpretation," says Miz Elizabeth, who helps fuel the Sardine mission to transform songs from another era into pop music for this century.

Together, Bibs and Miz Elizabeth carefully manage the delicate balance of showcasing old songs - some of them nearly a century old - without being an "old-timey band." Says Evan, "We don't treat this music with kid gloves, or place it on a pedestal to preserve and adore...we just play it...as if these songs were written this morning, for today's generation." The dramatically diverse age range among the Hot Sardines' fan base reflects their success at making the classics relevant to current audiences, and Vanity Fair applauds their "unique repertoire, and a sound and style that are distinctly their own."

In October 2014, their debut self-titled album on the Decca/Universal Music Classics label launched in the U.S. and internationally, and features a collection of both early jazz classics and original Sardine compositions.

The irony of the Hot Sardines' success is rooted in its origins: it was started by two non-musicians who never set out to form a band.

In 2007, Bibs and Elizabeth both answered the same Craigslist ad for an open jazz jam at an ad hoc rehearsal space in midtown Manhattan. Miz Eliz, who slipped out of her company holiday party at AOL Time Warner to be there, says that, "when Bibs and I met, it was like an instant musical connection," adding that, "we started trading stories of songs and singers we loved while growing up, naming our biggest influences and trying out tunes together...and it was like everyone else in the room just faded away while we geeked out." Evan knew the match was made in heaven when Miz Eliz asked him if he knew any Fats Waller. "I just started playing 'Your Feet's Too Big' on the piano," he says, "and Elizabeth just joined in like we'd been singing that duet together for decades, which was pretty magical because it looked like no one else around us even knew that song." In time, the core Sardine cast of characters expanded to include Jason Prover (trumpet), Alex Raderman (percussion), Nick Myers (clarinet/saxophone), and Evan Crane (upright bass/sousaphone).

The Hot Sardines have sold out 15 straight shows during their residency at New York's famed Joe's Pub, and showcased their versatility by performing to eager, hungry audiences at venues as diverse as the ultra-swank Top of the Standard (Boom Boom Room), the internationally-known Montreal Jazz Festival, the playfully-naughty underground speakeasy experience Shanghai Mermaid, and Symphony Hall in Boston, where they recently performed to sold out audiences in collaboration with the Boston Pops.

Both Evan and Miz Elizabeth attribute the Sardines' accessible and arresting style to the more modern cultural influences that enrich the core early-jazz foundation that originally brought them together. Says Evan, "Nothing is sacred...everything from The Muppets to Bugs Bunny and from Harry Connick, Jr. to James Brown and Louis Prima has infiltrated our music and the way we interpret and perform songs."

The Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts at Pepperdine University provides high-quality activities for over 50,000 people from 664 zip codes annually through performances, rehearsals, museum exhibitions, and master classes. Located on Pepperdine's breathtaking Malibu campus overlooking the Pacific, the center serves as a hub for the arts, uniquely linking professional guest artists with Pepperdine students as well as patrons from surrounding Southern California communities. Facilities include the 450-seat Smothers Theatre, the 118-seat Raitt Recital Hall, the "black box" Helen E. Lindhurst Theatre, and the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art.