Peter Petty & his Titans of Terpsichore at Sacramento Grand Ballroom

Ah the hot Jazz of the 1920s. Nobody can bring it with the intensity or the authenticity of Peter Petty, and the sterling musicians of his Titans of Terpsichore. Peter Petty is a Sacramento based band leader that tests (and coins) the adage “There are no small rooms, just louder ones.” Charged with the singular mission of reinterpreting music that scintillates, syncopates, and sometimes even educates, Mr. Petty swings out with the frenetic elegance of a Tasmanian devil in a tuxedo leading some of the finest stewards of traditional jazz in the Sacramento area to piggyback on the colossal, still-reverberating shoulders of such giants of the genre as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Mildred Bailey, Cab Calloway and Joe Williams...

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Ah the hot Jazz of the 1920s. Nobody can bring it with the intensity or the authenticity of Peter Petty, and the sterling musicians of his Titans of Terpsichore. Peter Petty is a Sacramento based band leader that tests (and coins) the adage “There are no small rooms, just louder ones.” Charged with the singular mission of reinterpreting music that scintillates, syncopates, and sometimes even educates, Mr. Petty swings out with the frenetic elegance of a Tasmanian devil in a tuxedo leading some of the finest stewards of traditional jazz in the Sacramento area to piggyback on the colossal, still-reverberating shoulders of such giants of the genre as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Mildred Bailey, Cab Calloway and Joe Williams. Then he leaps over to stomp on, and ride the coat-tails of undisputable legends like Ray Charles, Louis Prima, Roy Orbison, Shirley Bassey, Tom Waits, and David Bowie, singing every note of his 3 2/3 octave range with inexhaustible power and captivating control. Throwing out novelized lyrics, and even a few original tunes, it’s an infectious, eclectic, electric (and yet, still acoustic) mash-up that not only connects the dots between seemingly disparate musical genres, and artists, but does it with an adventurous and hilarious theatricality that entertains the “swell” out of audiences of all ages.

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