Ravinia 2026 Issue 1

No Prohibition SQUIRREL NUT ZIPPERS’ JIMBO MATHUS TOPSUP VINTAGE TASTE BYDONALD LIEBENSON JIMBO MATHUS CANNOT SAY what was in the water in 1996, but the Squirrel Nut Zippers, the genre-blend- ing ensemble he co-founded three years earlier, found themselves riding the crest of a wholly unexpected swing revival that had the country in thrall. That year, the outfit released its sophomore album, Hot , which sold more than a million copies in the United States. “Hell,” a single from the album, appeared on the Billboard charts. “It’s really just pure timing, pure chance,” Mathus says with a laugh. “That’s my only answer.” This year marks Hot’ s 30th anniver- sary. The Squirrel Nut Zippers will play it in its entirety when they make their long-gestating return to Ravinia on July 14. (The band opened for Tom Jones at the festival in 2009, but more recently, Mathus returned in collaboration with Andrew Bird and Bowl of Fire in 2021). They will also play signature classics spanning their three-decade career. There were several neo-swing bands that had themselves a time in the mid- 1990s, including Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies. But according to the Los Angeles Times , the Squirrel Nut Zippers were “far and away the most intriguing: [They] can play … and their focus clearly seems to be on making their own creative variations rather than simply offering rehashed dance rhythms.” Those creative variations make the Squirrel Nut Zippers difficult to label. They swing, most definitely, but their music has in its DNA elements of Django Reinhardt, ragtime, vaudeville, cabaret, calypso, Latin, klezmer, and jazz and blues styles from New Orleans and Chicago. Mathus himself calls the outfit “a highly functioning jazz band.” When he reflects on his decades with the Squirrel Nut Zippers, he feels “a sense of accomplishment and, dare I say it, pride,” he says. “We were all writers and into the alternative music scene, which encouraged original music, and we applied that aesthetic to this antique music form. When I tell other musicians that I have had this band for over 30 years, their jaws just hit the floor.” Mathus has described himself in interviews as a journeyman musician. It has been quite the journey that has RAVINIAMAGAZINE • JULY 11 – JULY 19 , 2026 26 RUTHIEHAUGE