Panorama Jazz Band

Directed by clarinetist Ben Schenck, the Panorama Jazz Band plays jazz in the tradition of Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and Sidney Bechet. What’s really cool: they’ve brought a New Orleans approach to other kinds of folkloric music from around the world – especially Eastern Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America. Despite the recent appearance of electrified and synthetic music, the young musicians in this group still prefer natural, handmade sounds. For centuries, clarinet, alto saxophone, trombone, accordion, banjo, tuba and drums have been used to get crowds dancing, and this is what the Panorama Jazz Band does, no matter what they’re playing — a New Orleans “second-line” and a Jewish hora; a biguine, a polka, or a habañera. It’s all good.