At Vieux Carré, every last Friday of the month is the Best Friday Ever! The Southside Aces sextet plays a century’s worth of New Orleans jazz. They travel from Louis Armstrong to Jelly Roll Morton to Preservation Hall, with stops along the way at Duke Ellington and Bix Beiderbecke. From Buddy Bolden to Lady Gaga! What?! You heard right. That’s why this is the Best Friday Ever.

Southside Aces perform traditional New Orleans jazz. The band first began as the brainchild of Clarinetist Tony Balluff and Sousaphone player Erik Jacobson. Their whispers and rumors materialized in Tony’s foyer near Pillsbury and 27th in South Minneapolis, late August 2003. Since their first gig on a flatbed truck in Apple Valley, they’ve played weddings, festivals, clubs— “music furnished for all occasions.”

The Aces have self-produced and released five CDs: All Aboard!!, Bucktown Bounce, A Big Fine Thing, their Christmas album, Santaphone, and their latest, Second Thursday.