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Tony Ventura stepped up to the microphone and faced the crowd. �Today, we�re going to hear John Cocuzzi play vibes. We haven�t heard him before, but he�s supposed to be good,� he said. The stocky Ventura stepped down from the small stage and weaved through the tables to stand in the back of the room as the lights dimmed.

Cocuzzi looked to be somewhere in his forties. With his long gray hair pulled back in a ponytail, he looked more like a modern jazz musician than a guy who would play in front of the Illiana Club of Traditional Jazz.

It was the club�s monthly Sunday afternoon concert at the Glendora Ballroom in Chicago Ridge. It amazes me that hundreds of people drive past this ballroom�s uninspiring fa�ade at 102nd and Harlem, across the street from a Wal-Mart, without a clue that hot jazz is happening inside. The building looks structurally sound, but inside it feels like some old cartoon where there�s a party and the walls of the house sway in time with the music.

Some 200 people came to hear this vibes player �prove� himself. He wore a suit and tie. I like it when musicians dress up for their audiences. It shows respect. Most of the members of this jazz club have gray or white hair, and their generation dresses for concerts. Many were dressed up like the musicians. Others came in their July casual attire.

John Cocuzzi lives in the D.C. area. He and his drummer, Big Joe Maher, flew in for the gig at the behest of the club�s officers. He introduced the afternoon�s combo. �These are my old friends,� he said, gesturing toward Maher, who sat like a hulk behind the skins and cymbals of his trade, and Chuck Hedges, a local favorite clarinetist. �And these are my new friends, Nick Schneider on bass and Don Stille on piano,� he added.

The makeshift combo was almost ready to begin. Cocuzzi apologized for starting late, explaining that the vibes [vibraphone] and drums were borrowed from local musicians and arrived later than expected.

The concerts last from 2 to 6 p.m. Some of these retired people have too much time on their hands and they show up very early for these affairs. I arrived at the club at one o�clock, because with cabaret style seating, it�s every jazz lover for himself.

The band started out with a slow tune. By the end of the second one, any remaining cynicism in the audience was melted away by the warm tone of the vibes. The band was fully warmed up by the middle of the first set. Hedges� fluid clarinet runs meshed perfectly with Cocuzzi�s swinging mallets. And Maher, Schneider and Stille as the rhythm section were like pillars of sound for the front line to lean on.
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