The Saint James Trio returns again to Cafe Nine for a special Sunday-After-Supper session of classic Jazz standards from the old saloon-singer songbook that’s guaranteed to put a song in your world-weary hearts and soothe your pre-holiday jitters. Long recognized as the Elm City’s premier lounge-lizard-type balladeer, Kevin Saint James re-creates, reworks and re-imagines well known favorites from that bygone era (when Jazz music still had actual songs in it) in his own straight-ahead meat-and-potatoes performance style of versatile voicings that croon, croak and crow with equal ease. The musical engine of this particularly spartan trio will be the unrivaled piano/organ Jazzmaster Joe McWilliams, who accompanied Kevin on his very first-ever cabaret-style Jazz gig over 30 years ago at – you guessed it – Cafe Nine (back in its hallowed Mike Reichbart era). Holding down them rock-bottom beats on his downright upright upright will be Jazz bass virtuoso and fervent lover of old songs Lou Bocciarelli, the perfect complement to round out this serendipitous celebration of moldy melodic masterworks.

Working in this bare-bones stripped-down format, as opposed to the high-energy crash-banging racket of the full Saint James Jazz Band, not only allows an opportunity to break out some of the quieter, more intimate tunes that are rarely touched upon when playing for the usual general audiences – it also gives the markedly un-usual, far-from-generic Cafe Nine crowd a rare chance to really hear every note and nuance applied to these tasty time-tested traditional tunes that often get drowned out in noisier rooms where the loud voices of oblivious onlookers can overpower the use of subtler dynamics. That’s one of the main reasons why the 9’s the perfect setting for this show – and also why the band’s arranged for the night’s performance to be recorded live and produced by their good friends Pat Dalton and Sam Carlson at Sans Serif Recording.