Lucky 7s is a jazz band made up of musicians from the New Orleans and Chicago jazz scenes:

Lucky 7s is the brainchild of Jeb Bishop and Jeff Albert. In September 2005, shortly after Hurricane Katrina blew through Jeff’s hometown of New Orleans, Jeb and Jeff were discussing the future. Jeff wanted to try to book some gigs for his group in the Chicago area, since it seemed that the regular New Orleans creative scene would be out of sorts for quite some time. Jeb suggested a co-op project with some Chicago musicians along with players from the New Orleans scene. Wish lists were made and emails were sent and answered, and a band was born.

The septet offers several mp3s on its site as free downloads under the Creative Commons Music Sharing license. It’s great stuff — modern yet steeped in improv traditions. If you like what you hear, you can buy Lucky 7s new CD, Farragut via Lakefront Digital or through CD Baby.