Formed in 2004 through Jara Queeto’s leadership, Oakland-based Blue Bone Express has been exposing the San Francisco Bay Area to a type of jazz rarely heard beyond the Mississippi Delta. It is a jazz that is music to party by: the traditional sounds of Mardi Gras, New Orleans funerals, and barrelhouse brothels.

Blue Bone Express strives to reveal the spark that created jazz in its beginnings, rooted in the music of New Orleans, by way of Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and the Louisiana swamplands. Whether parading in the street, or setting the mood for burlesque performers, the configuration of tuba, brass, drums, and piano excites onlookers to dance with wild abandon.

Through a healthy mix of originals and gems of both distant and recent past, Blue Bone Express proves to jumpstart any party.

If Blue Bone Express is playing, then the party has most certainly begun!