Bring dancing shoes and get ready to jazz it up as Tullahoma’s South Jackson Band plays a free concert at Nashville’s Centennial Park this Saturday.

Traditional 1930s through 1950s big band music such as swing, Latin music and more will be performed at the free, family-friendly concert at 7 p.m. 

 “We do a lot of different styles of music, playing everything besides country, and we can play any style of big-band music there is,” says lead trombonist and band leader Allen Johnson.

This year’s Centennial Park concert will be the band’s third time playing the concert in the past four years.

“The crowd enjoys being able to listen to the music we play, which is not all electronic-type instruments,” says Johnson. “We do a lot of mixtures of different styles of music that people can dance to. It’s a full big-band orchestra and I think the big draw is people hearing that type of music being played live again. We’re keeping an old style of music alive.”

The South Street Jackson Band has saxophone, trombones, trumpets and rhythm sections, along with a couple of vocalists. There are approximately 20 members in the band that plays throughout the Middle Tennessee area, including upper Alabama and lower Kentucky. 

Several members of the South Jackson Street Band are McMinnville locals, including Kenny Kominos, Billy Wood, Mike Chilcutt and Judith Roney.