Continuing the happy theme, Carrie sang When Your Smiling, getting the jubilant fans involved in a sing-along. 

Everyone is familiar with the theme from "This Old House", but you can really appreciate Louisiana Fairytale when Jimmy sings it in his own sweet, inimitable style.  Fabulous.  

A comment often heard by the Mazzys, Come On Over To My House began with Carrie, backed by Jeff on a muted wa-wa trumpet, and ended with a delightful duet by Carrie & Jimmy.  Only the best musicians can pull off a slow tune, demonstrated by this talented crew with Jimmy crooning on a plaintive, Are You Lonesome Tonight? with Craig's beautiful phrases on clarinet.

If I Could Be With You  had a great trumpet solo backed by piano and without fail, Jimmy's unique single-string picking on banjo.  Being self-taught, some have accused him of playing it backwards.  Other banjo players, with their nose practically on the strings,  exclaimed "How does he DO that??"

The ensemble went wild on San, with lyrical, soaring clarinet, followed by electrically charged trumpet, then Craig and Jeff set off second-lining up and down the aisles. 

And so it went - a lot of Jimmy, with Craig's fast fingering, Jeff's powerful trumpet, and Moishe's digital dexterity. Moishe's love is a real  piano and he absolutely refuses to play a keyboard.  But out of respect for Jimmy, he relented, just this one time.

Time means nothing to Jimmy - after playing for an hour and a half, everybody took a badly needed break for refreshments and chatted with the many contented fans in attendance. 

*    *    *

Oh Susannah launched the second set, with a fanatical start; it was short, quick, and effective, everybody sat up!   Jimmy moved into Fats Waller's  Let's Spread The News, backed by a HOT and heavy ensemble. Hard Hearted Hannah featured Craig's fierce clarinet, Moishe, with the beautiful hands, and Jimmy on vocals, interspersed with Jeff's muted wa wa trumpet.

What followed was pure Jimmy with it's A Sin To Tell A Lie, single string banjo and scatting as only he can, with Fats Waller's lyrics: "If you break my heart, I'll break your jaw, then I'll die", backed by our 'other' Artie Shaw on clarinet. 

Carrie honored a request for a lovely, seldom heard, Eddie Condon tune, Wherever There's Love, There's You And I

Putting On The Ritz, raised the tempo, and then Willie The Weeper happened, requested by long time fan, Bunny.  It started quietly, turned into a cacophony of powerful sound with primitive, wailing clarinet floating over the vigorous counterpoint of the trumpet, Jimmy scatting; the whole band building, soaring!  Ron L'Herault couldn't sit still any more, jumped up and started  clapping to the beat.  The band went way out on a limb, somebody got lost, and the whole craze ended up in a complete train wreck!  Whew! I love this jazz!!

Jimmy put everybody back on track with pure unadulterated Mazzy on the soulful poignant, Muddy Water.  I could listen to him all day. But with time running out, Carrie asked the band what they wanted to play, and they let Moishe loose on a superb Russian Lullaby.  Requests were the mode - Janet, a fan from Concord Inn, asked for One Hundred Years From Today.  It left me wondering, "Will this fine music still be around?"

Moishe asked for a blues. What - a Blues??  This is a JAZZ crowd!   While everybody stood looking perplexed at each other, Jeff, always prepared, moved into a slow, blues beat.  The guys picked up on it, each providing his own special blues, Jimmy scatting, Moishe now on low register Hammond B3 organ, magnificently jammin' the blues.

The evening wound up with another discerning thought with Nat King Cole's 1950's  For All We Know We May Never Meet Again, with vocal by Carrie backed by Jimmy on banjo, pursued by trumpet, banjo, piano.  And all too quickly, it was all over.

Ever humble and self-effacing, Jimmy announced "What a privilege it is to play with such talented musicians here tonight."  Ditto Jimmy.  What a privilege for us to have the opportunity to hear these spectacular tunes from the 20s, 30s and 40s interpreted by Jim and this magnificent group.

With his enthusiasm, humor and creativity, Mazzy has repeatedly won nationwide polls as THE top traditional jazz banjo player and male vocalist. Join us. We catch him and his Minute Men (and Women) every Wednesday from 8-11pm (when he's not traveling with Butch Thompson) at the Colonial Inn in Concord MA.

Bonus: - Early Jimmy with Mary's All Stars. (Ray Smith on drums)