For those not in the know, there are jazz records, and then there are time capsules. A Celebration of Maurice Hines: Tappin’ Thru Life is both: a jubilant posthumous cast album that captures the electricity of Maurice Hines’s autobiographical stage show while preserving the living spirit of American song, tap, and big band swing.

Brought to life by the powerhouse all-female DIVA Jazz Orchestra under the direction of drummer and music director Sherrie Maricle, this 18-track celebration swings with heart, memory, and unrelenting groove.

1. Tappin’ Thru Life Overture
w. I’ve Never Been in Love Before
3. Every Day I Have the Blues
4. I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face
5. Get Me to the Church on Time
6. Ballin’ the Jack
7. Honeysuckle Rose
8. Come Fly with Me
9. All the Way
10. I’ve Got Your Under My Skin
11. Luck Be a Lady
12. Ko-Ko: John and Leo Manzari – Tap Dance
13. I Can’t Give You Anything but Love
14. It’s Only a Paper Moon
15. Smile
16. L.O.V.E.
17. It Don’t Mean a Thing if It Ain’t Got That Swing
18. Too Marvelous for Word

The show from which this album is drawn was Maurice Hines’s song-and-dance memoir, tracing his 75-year career through music, family, and the showbiz icons who shaped his life, and thus this new recording opens on the triumphant Tappin’ Thru Life Overture itself a rousing medley of It Don’t Mean a Thing + Every Day I Have the Blues + Caravan + Luck Be a Lady + Too Marvelous for Words and then brings us the rhythmic pairing of both I’ve Never Been in Love Before and Every Day I Have the Blues, before the intimately introspective I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face and the swing of Get Me to the Church on Time and the soft-shoe shuffle vibe of Ballin’ the Jack are given to us, they themselves backed by John Manzari’s swinging Honeysuckle Rose and a veritably smooth combo of both Come Fly with Me and All the Way.

Featuring original cast members John and Leo Manzari, both expert tap dancers and vocalists in their own right, alongside Grammy-nominated vocalist Clint Holmes and Tony-nominated vocalist Ann Hampton Callaway, along next is the big band-hued I’ve Got Your Under My Skin, the Sinatra-esque Luck Be a Lady, then comes a simply mesmerizing tap duet Ko-Ko: John and Leo Manzari – Tap Dance, the soulfully grooved pairing of I Can’t Give You Anything but Love and It’s Only a Paper Moon, the set rounding out on an all-encompassing Smile, a simply breathtaking L.O.V.E. closing on an infectious groove that threads through the euphoric It Don’t Mean a Thing if It Ain’t Got That Swing, closing on a harmonious gathering of band, voices, and tappers within Too Marvelous for Words.

Founded in 1992 by Stanley Kay and now led by Maricle, the DIVA Jazz Orchestra is no stranger to honoring tradition with muscle and finesse. With a lineup that includes some of the most skilled big band musicians in the country, with Amy Shook on bass, Jackie Warren on piano, Jami Dauber and Liesl Whitaker on trumpets, Lauren Sevian on baritone sax, and more. DIVA brings precision and punch to an album that is as much about joy and legacy.