Jazz Pharaohs

The Jazz Pharaohs are Austin’s long-running traditional / swing jazz crew—formed around 1990–91 in the same era as Bad Livers, with early ties to Danny Barnes (banjo) and Mark Rubin (tuba) before evolving into the Stanley Smith–led hot-jazz unit fans know today. Clarinetist-vocalist Stanley Smith, guitarists Dave Biller and J.D. Pendley, reeds man Jon Doyle, and trombonist Freddie Mendoza traffic in Leroy’s-swing fire, Old Man Time–era sets, and tongue-in-cheek “Austin’s Best Wedding Band” swagger that packs Elephant Room happy hours and festival dance floors. Vintage Guitar and Chronicle coverage treat them as feisty good-time swingsters, not museum reenactors.

Expect clarinet-led trad jazz and swing when the Jazz Pharaohs hit the stage—Austin traditional-jazz lifers, not a hip-hop Pharaohs tribute or a student big-band recital.