Let's make a crucial distinction: While sardines (the fishy pizza topping) are bitterly controversial, Hot Sardines (the jazz band) are pretty much universally beloved. Take a blustery brass lineup, layer it over a rhythm section led by a stride-piano virtuoso, and tie it all together with a front-woman with a vintage voice, and you have a jazz band par excellence -- and that's before you toss in the in-house hoofer. Incorporating sounds of the Prohibition era, the Great Depression, WWII and beyond, the group sounds both completely vintage and sharply contemporary, able to transform old songs into pop music for this century. Crowned "one of the best jazz bands" by Forbes and declared "simply phenomenal" by The Times of London, Hot Sardines now come to electrify Jones Hall.