Hope the folks at Hotel Congress have cleared out the tables in front of the Plaza stage for Thursday's International Jazz Day celebration.
Very few people sit when Naomi Uyama takes the stage with Her Handsome Devils.
The audience gravitates to the stagefront, no matter how big or small, and lets the nostalgia of the music take them back to the swinging days of the roaring '20s.
The music, punctuated by infectious call-and-response patterns between brass and reeds, has its roots in hot jazz and ragtime with smoother, danceable rhythms. Back in its 1920s heyday, the dance was swing or the Lindy Hop, which Uyama knows well.
She's won championships in both forms, including the International Lindy Hop Championships, Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown, American Lindy Hop Championships and the U.S. Open Swing Dance Championships.
Naomi Uyama & Her Handsome Devils are bringing the swing to the International Jazz Day party at Hotel Congress's Plaza stage on Thursday, April 30.Β Β
Arrive early to Thursday's concert, and Uyama might impart some of her dance wisdom. She's giving a crash course in six-count Lindy Hop pattern for beginners at 6:30 p.m., right before Brice Winston and theΒ Tucson Jazz Institute Ellington Big Band take the stage at 7:30.
When she is on tour, Uyama, who is releasing a new EP this week, reinvents Naomi & Her Handsome Devils with local jazz musicians.
In Tucson, the band will include Jason Carder on trumpet, Aidan Schofield on trombone, Brice Winston playing saxophone, Ed DeLucia on guitar, Leo Stealey-Euchner on piano, Scott Black playing bass and Arthur Vint on drums.
Hotel Congress Plaza, 311 E. Congress St., opens at 6 p.m. Thursday. Tickets through hotelcongress.com are $10 for students, $20 for adults and free for those 18 and younger.
Also, on Friday, May 1, Uyama and her Tucson Handsome Devils will play a pair of shows (6:30 and 8:30 p.m.) at the Century Room at Hotel Congress. Tickets are $37.08 for general admission, $48.41 for preferred seats through hotelcongress.com/venues/centuryroom.
