Hot Club of Cowtown Returns for an Evening of Hot Jazz Feb. 7

Hot Club of Cowtown returns to the McAninch Arts Center (MAC), 425 Fawell Blvd., 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 7. The Chicago Tribune says, “This Austin-based western swing/jazz violin, guitar and upright bass trio will bring even the tamest audience to its feet.” Media support for this event is provided by WDCB 90.9 FM. Chicago's jazz station.

With a unique sound and joyful on-stage personality, the Hot Club of Cowtown is scheduled to perform a mix of audience favorites plus new works from their newly released album “Wild Kingdom.” “Wild Kingdom” features 11 original pieces plus three American classics served up Hot Club Cowtown style. The Austin Chronicle says of the new album, “the playing remains immaculate and enticing, and the trio's take on traditional ‘Loch Lomond’ and ‘High Upon the Mountain’ ring sharp and unique.”

Hot Club of Cowtown has attracted an international cult following for their blend of hot jazz and western swing inspired by Django Reinhardt and Stephanie Grappelli's Quintette du Hot Club de France and the American western swing of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. Hot Club of Cowtown features Elana James (fiddle and vocals), Whit Smith (guitar and vocals) and Jake Erwin (bass and vocals). Hot Club of Cowtown, which has been based in Austin, Texas since 1998, is not named for any specific "Cowtown," but is rather just intended as state of mind, or "The Cowtown of the Imagination."

James met guitarist Smith in 1994 through an ad in the Village Voice while both were living in New York City. They played together for some years, later adding Erwin, a slap bass player to form Hot Club of Cowtown. The group’s repertoire includes original material as well as a mix of pre-WWII Western swing combined with the European hot jazz. Other influences include American swing violinists Stuff Smith, Joe Venuti, and Johnny Gimble, among others. The group has since gone on to become one of the most globe-trotting, hardest-swinging Western trios in the world, opening for artists such as Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson.

In 2004 Hot Club of Cowtown was inducted into the Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame and, in 2014, was nominated for the first-ever Ameripolitan Music Awards in the Best Western Swing Group category (James was also nominated the category “Western Swing Female of the Year”). In the following year the band was nominated again and this time won the Ameripolitan Music Awards for Western Swing Group of the Year; with James winning Western Swing Female of the year.

Hot Club of Cowtown returns to the McAninch Arts Center, 425 Fawell Blvd. on the College of DuPage campus, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 7. Tickets are $35-$45. For an additional $30 per person, attendees may add on VIP Suite Service, a private, pre-show cocktail and hors d’oeuvres reception followed by coffee and dessert at intermission. For tickets or more information visit AtTheMAC.org or call 630.942.4000.