WEDNESDAY

Whatever you do, donþ t call San Francisco’s Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers a neo-swing band. Sure, lead singer Smith is still shy of 30, and the band was mentioned in the first line of Time’s story on the death of Sinatra. But they are not neo-swing. þ The focus of our band is classic blues and jazz from the 1920s to the 1960s,þ explains 34-year-old pianist, arranger, and band spokesman Chris Siebert. þ A lot of the neo-swing bands today play either Dixieland from 1926 or swing from a rock perspective.þ Siebert is too polite to say it outright, but groups like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and the Cherry Poppinþ Daddies tend to blind their audiences with speed, denying both the sexy, sauntering sway of classic swing and its blues element. The Skillet Lickers’ self-produced-and-distributed CD One Hour Mama is a delightful collection of tunes that reclaims jazz from both the curators who want to put it under glass and the hip police who want to give it electroshock, including covers of songs by Fats Waller (a gorgeous þ Squeeze Meþ ), Irving Berlin, Dinah Washington (a major influence), Count Basie, and others. The players are a collection of older and younger musicians. Many of the old-timers have played with legends from Basie and Lionel Hampton to Duke Ellington and blues shouter Joe Turner. The band changes members frequently because, says Chris, they þ love musicians,þ but he promises a stellar line up for their east coast gigs. At 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 1, at George Mason University, Student Union Building II, 4400 University Dr., Fairfax. $15. (703) 993-8892 (Mark Gauvreau Judge)