Oh My God, Live Jazz! Kill It! Kill It!

Last night as I was returning from my sunset fact-finding mission, I encountered the strains of Duke Ellington's "Black and Tan Fantasy" coming from Buckley's at 2nd & Battery. Sure enough, these guys were playing there:

Let me tell you, even though it's not me blowing there, I'm really overjoyed about this. I firmly believed that live jazz outside of clubs like Tula's and Jazz Alley was extinct. All hail Buckley's for disproving that! And thanks for booking a hot-jazz combo. They sounded really good. Here's the back of the band in action:

From the peculiar shape of the back of the clarinet player's head, I'm 80% sure that's none other than Craig Flory. Although I don't often heap praise on other local sax players (especially tenor players), I have to say that Flory is super-excellent.

OK, it's settled, I'm going there every week. You'll know me because I'll be the guy drunkenly shouting at them to play "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" or something just as swampy. See you there next Monday!