Some hot jazz on a cold Pennsylvania night may be just what the doctor ordered for the post-Christmas blahs.

At 7:30 p.m. Jan. 14, the Hot Sardines will take the stage at the Bromeley Family Theater at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford as part of the Prism art series.

“We are a band that formed when Evan (Palazzo) and I met at a jazz jam that was advertised on Craig’s List,” explained lead singer Elizabeth Bougerol. “Neither of us were professional musicians. We both loved the stuff from the 20s, 30s, 40s. It’s not considered traditional jazz. We bonded over the fact you couldn’t hear it live often.”

They started out just having some fun, but it morphed into something a whole lot bigger.

“We record with Decca now,” Bougerol said. “We have a three-record deal. We have an eight-piece band and a tap dancer.

“It’s all based on the idea that music should move you.”

Listening to the Hot Sardines play classics like “St. James Infirmary Blues” or “When I Get Low I Get High,” audience members will understand what she means.

“We have some standards that some people have heard time and again, great songs that have really survived that long because they are just that good,” Bougerol said. “And we love to mine more obscure stuff from those eras. We want to introduce more audiences to these songs.”

There’s far more songs out there than the dozen or so standards with which people are familiar.

“All the great composers — Cole Porter, Gershwin, Berlin and so on — they have vast catalogs of songs and sometimes you don’t hear those,” she said. “In one show you might hear ‘Summertime’ by Gershwin and ‘Wake Up in Paris,’ a song I wrote.”

Audiences of all ages have been enjoying this musical trip back in time, Bougerol said.

“The really mind-blowing thing, we have seen people of all ages,” she explained. “It warms our hearts the most to see four generations of one family at a show.

“The grandparents appreciate it because it’s music they are closer to,” she continued. “The grandkids appreciate it because we aren’t playing this music with kid gloves. We aren’t trying to recreate it.

“All of us in this band have listened to this music and to everything that’s come since. If a James Brown lick makes its way into something from the 20s, well, it’s all music. That’s what always lets audiences connect with this kind of music — every musician brings their own story.”

When the Hot Sardines began, there weren’t many other groups out there paying homage to the old jazz classics. Now, jazz festivals are growing in popularity, and groups like Preservation Hall Jazz Band are touring the country.

“It’s a great time for this music,” Bougerol said.

Just what is it that has brought this music back? Bougerol said it could be a lot of things, but she had a theory.

“When we try to get academic about it, the theory that’s felt the closest to resonating for me, I felt a sense of connection like I never had experienced with anything.

“The feel of the music and the sound of the musicians making it up on the stage, it’s visual in addition to something you hear,” she explained. “I felt this feeling that was a little spiritual. It made me feel connected.”

Nowadays, even though people may be connected electronically through smartphones and the internet, they are disconnected from personal contact.

“I think it’s a fairly isolating time,” Bougerol opined. “It can foster a hunger for experiences that make you feel connected. We try to connect people through the joy of music.”

There’s a connection, too, to what people may perceive as simpler times.

“It may be a bit of nostalgia for times before now, in the way eras always feel simpler in the rearview mirror,” she said.

Bougerol explained what audiences can expect from the upcoming performance in Bradford.

“They can expect to hear some sounds they don’t get to hear live that much,” she said, as well as “mini, easily swallowed jazz lessons because we love to talk about where jazz comes from.”

“They can expect tap dancing, beautiful three-part horn harmonies, and hopefully they can expect to feel something. There’s a real welcoming spiritual aspect to it.”

Bougerol added, “Hopefully we’ll send people home with a soaring heart.”

Tickets cost $22 for the public, $18 for faculty and staff, $10 for students and $5 for Pitt-Bradford students. To purchase tickets, call the box office at 814-362-5113 or visit www.upb.pitt.edu/TheArts.