Lavay Smith, Skillet Lickers Keep Club-Goers Hopping

Jazz is where you find it. Both the swing revival movement and the new jam bands are providing an impressive amount of jazz-related music to audiences that might not otherwise be drawn to it. And the key factors in their appeal are accessibility and danceability.

The performance by Lavay Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers at the Knitting Factory Hollywood on Friday night was a good example. The tables and chairs in the main stage area had been removed, and the venue was packed with a youthful audience, many dressed in swing-era garb. From start to finish, the Skillet Lickers’ set was the engine that drove nonstop Lindy Hopping, jitterbugging and every variation of swing dancing from a crowd that was clearly enjoying the music, the scene and the opportunity to display their terpsichorean skills.

What made the evening fascinating from a musical perspective was that the San Francisco-based Skillet Lickers--a collection of players who range in age up to 74-year-old alto saxophonist Bill Stewart--are a solid, experienced ensemble. One could make a pretty good case, in fact, for the band as a straight-ahead, swing-oriented jazz group, completely exclusive of their catchy name and their appeal to young dancers.

The program included pieces written by or associated with Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Illinois Jacquet, as well as originals by Smith and Skillet Lickers’ music director/pianist Chris Siebert. The arrangements, by Siebert and David Berger, remained true to the spirit of swing while often adding textural combinations with a distinctly more contemporary sound. And the soloing--especially from Stewart, tenor saxophonist Howard Wiley (doing a particularly impressive version of Jacquet’s ebullient style on “Jet Propulsion”), trumpeter Bill Ortiz and trombonist Danny Armstrong--was first rate.

Smith’s performance offered somewhat of a calculated retro stance, a lush vocal style recalling both Bessie Smith and Dinah Washington and a visual imagery in the style of a swing band chanteuse. But it is her upfront presence combined with a dedication to the music that make it possible for the Skillet Lickers to be so much more than a commercialized swing band. Smith and co-leader Siebert deserve credit for finding a way to bring the jazz experience to an audience that might otherwise never discover the full richness of the music.