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Take a break from the hustle and bustle and join us for our annual holiday concert series. Enjoy a variety of local talent.
"Toledo's Oldest New Orleans Style Jazz Band"
The Cakewalkin' Jass Band (CJB) was organized in December of 1967. After playing three short nightclub jobs and one wedding, the band opened at Tony Packo's Cafe Wednesday, July 3, 1968. Eleven and one-half years later, the CJB was still packing them in every Friday and Saturday night at the Hungarian-style restaurant. Starting out as a four-piece group with banjo, drums, piano, and clarinet, the band expanded after beginning at Packo's to include cornet, trombone, tuba and/or sting bass. The size of the band has been four, five, six, seven, six, back to seven and now eight persons. Presently, the instrumentation is banjo, string bass, piano, cornet, clarinet, drums, trombone, and vocalist with eight members. Over the years, there have been 29 full-time musicians and about 51 often used substitutes in the CJB
With all this and an authentic New Orleans-style repertoire now at over 490 tunes, the Cakewalkin' Jass Band has a bright active future. The band's love of the music and of bringing its inherent happiness to an audience is infectious - as the thousands upon thousands of people who have seen and heard the band will attest.
