WEBSTER, Mass. – American poet Stanly Cooper once described jazz music as “improvisations coming straight from the heart.” Such musical spontaneity, void of musical bars and space, was fueled by legendary artists like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie.

Such music inspires The Hot Sardines, a retro jazz group who will visit the Indian Ranch in Webster for a one-off show on Thursday, July 22, to kick off the Music Worcester summer concert series. Tickets start at $35.

“It’s a really cool time to be making music,” said Elizabeth Bougerol, who is the lead singer of the Hot Sardines. “Especially if you’re making music that started its life 100 years ago.”

The Hot Sardines are on a mission to make old jazz sound new again, bringing people together with joyful music.

“We found ourselves in the perfect place at the perfect time,” said bandleader Evan Palazzo. “As we explored this 100-year-old jazz, we began to look at it as a journey forward, not so much as a look back. This is music for today, not a museum piece.”

Palazzo and Bougerol met in 2007 after they both answered a Craigslist ad about a jazz jam session above a Manhattan noodle shop. Bougerol grew up in France, Canada and the Ivory Coast, attending the London School of Economics and eventually working as a traveling writer. Palazzo is a native New Yorker who studied theater at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. The two musicians bonded over their love for Fats Waller. They were also influenced by jazz greats like Dinah Washington, Armstrong and Billie Holiday. They began playing open mic nights and small gigs in 2011, which eventually led to headlining the Midsummer Night Swing gig at New York’s Lincoln Center.

With influences from the New Orleans hot jazz movement in the early 1900s, which is a blend ragtime, blues and brass band marches, the Hot Sardines stand out. Since 2019, they have been featured at the Newport Jazz Festival and the Montreal Jazz Festival. They have sold out New York City venues from Joe’s Pub to the Bowery Ballroom, to more than 150 tour dates from Chicago to London. The group has released two albums on the Universal Music Classics label to critical raves and a No. 1 slot on the iTunes jazz chart in the U.S. and internationally.

The next show features Trey McLaughlin & The Sounds of Zamar, a gospel choir, at the Hanover Theatre in Worcester on Sunday, July 25. Visit www.musicworcester.org ticket information.