You know how wine (and maybe other things) are said to improve with age. Betcha nobody reading this has tasted a 92-year-old vintage, but drummer Joe Sorrentino celebrated that milestone a few weeks ago. At Jazz on Jay Thursday, he provided a steady pulse to the quartet that bears his name and features players far younger.

Actually, they played Jazz NEAR Jay: Heat drove this week’s edition of the free concert series indoors. And, since the rain site in Robb Alley was in use, the show moved into Proctors adjacent GE Theatre. Aggressive air-conditioning maybe contributed to a restless, high-traffic crowd, busily moving in and out. Jazz fans who stayed enjoyed a mellow-swinging small group confidently and ably tackling vintage tunes – some possibly as old as Sorrentino. Seated behind a tiny kit – hi-hat, snare and a single stand with two cymbals – he impressed with tasteful ease. “That steady meter, that’s right there,” said drummer/player of many other things Ricardo Hamright.

They relaxed into their 90-minute set, Bobby Kendall’s walking bass-line setting up “C-Jam Blues,” guitarist/front-man Crick Diefendorf tapping his head to cue the re-cap after his own tasteful solo after those by keyboardist Tyler Giroux and Kendall. Back trouble kept Kendall’s acoustic bass at home and he played a Fender electric as venerable as Diefendorf’s hollow-body Guild jazz box.

Diefendorf sang in “Sway,” first of several Latin numbers, as Sorrentino played aggressively with sticks on the snare frame. (He mostly played with brushes.) The quartet thereafter alternated between instrumentals and vocals. “Blueberry Hill” (yeah, the Fats Domino stroll) got a slow blues treatment and a nuanced Diefendorf vocal. Sorrentino introduced “Nightingale” with a march beat by himself and later chimed his hi-hat with the metal ring on his brush handle as Diefendorf ganged up on the beat, first in fine filigree notes, then brash chord strums. 

Things sped up further in “Route 66,” a swinging vocal number played faster than usual and with riff-swapping at the end, everybody taking turns with Sorrentino.

Another Latin tune followed, “El Cumbanchero” swung with lots of energy, Sorrentino precise and sharp in its many tempo shifts and Giroux soloing strong.

He launched “All of Me” in an exposed solo and the tune proved the most interactive of the set. Sorrentino caught the energy of the applause and smiled wide, then Diefendorf rode the crowd’s claps into a spirited riff eruption. He stayed hot in “Besame Mucho,” although Kendall’s bass solo matched Diefedorf’s guitar explorations. Diefendorf then claimed praise for skipping the cha-cha-cha ending that many players (he included himself) append to Latin numbers

He cited, but didn’t explain, life changes that he said added emotion to “There’ll Be Some Changes Made” and aimed a good-natured gibe at A Place for Jazz leader emeritus Tim Coakley, a longtime bandmate in the late Skip Parsons’s Riverboat Jazz Band. Coakley shot back that he, for once, wasn’t the oldest drummer in the room. Kendall caught the mood, wryly inserting “Sweet Georgia Brown” into his solo, then joining in a riff-swap with everybody taking a bite of the melody.

The venerable Juan Tizol/Duke Ellington classic “Caravan” (four years younger than Sorrentino) got a fresh Latin treatment that fit and swung. Diefendorf cued a zippy riff swap with his most electric break of the show. They slowed for “Moonlight in Vermont;” Diefendorf intro’ed and sang it, but Giroux took the hottest solo in this sweet ballad. Then they revved up again for “Brazil,” Sorrentino soloing the intro himself before Kendall slid a soft bass-line underneath and everybody climbed onboard.

Tunes and tempos felt mostly mellow, familiar; but nobody coasted. Everybody played accompaniment under all the solos, except in song intros, and nobody enjoyed the songs and the swing more than Sorrentino.

Comfy sofas and easy chairs welcomed fans at the front and kids and others danced at times. Afterward, the cats packed up to move on to their evening gigs.

Jazz on Jay continues next Thursday, Aug. 6, with trumpeter Terry Gordon’s Quintet.