We get a consistent flow of great live music in the lower levels of the Catskills, so it’s wonderful when the calendar is augmented by cool touring acts that make it to the higher elevations of our region—such as New York band the Hot Sardines, who will bring their “Holiday Stomp” to the Orpheum Performing Arts Center in Tannersville on December 16 for an evening of swinging traditional jazz.
Formed in 2007 by artistic director, singer, and writer—and occasional washboard player—Elizabeth Bougerol and artistic director, actor, and pianist Evan Palazzo, the Hot Sardines have been called “one of the best jazz bands in NY today” by Forbes magazine. The group came together when Bougerol and Palazzo both answered a Craigslist ad for a Times Square noodle shop that was hosting a traditional jazz jam. “I started playing [Fats Waller’s] “Your Feet’s Too Big” on the piano and Elizabeth joined in like we’d been singing that duet together for decades,” Palazzo recalls. Bougerol recounts how “everyone else in the room just faded away while we geeked out.”
Since then, the band has gone from speakeasies and underground parties in Brooklyn to festival crowds of 25,000 and their television debut on BBC-TV’s “Later…with Jools Holland.” “These are times that need live music,” says Bougerol. “And I don’t know of anything that brings people together like the joy of hearing traditional jazz live.”
The Catskill Mountain Foundation will present the Hot Sardines at Orpheum Performing Arts Center in Tannersville on December 16 at 8pm. Tickets are $8.98.
This article appears in December 2023.
