Centenary Stage Company plans to heat things up this winter with their annual January Thaw Music Festival.  This year features three exciting performances throughout January in Sitnik Theater, part of the Lackland Performing Arts Center.

Launching the festival is The HooDoo Loungers, bringing Mardi Gras early to the Lackland Center on Saturday, January 14 at 8 p.m.  The HooDoo Loungers, a high energy nine-piece band, performs electrifying music inspired by the rhythms, sounds, history, and spirit of New Orleans.  The band’s sound encompasses traditional New Orleans Jazz, Brass Band, classic R&B and funk in a blend of original music and re-arranged New Orleans classics.

The fun continues Sunday, Jan. 22, at 2 p.m. as one of New York’s most versatile musicians, Eddie Allen, brings three trumpeters and an all-star ensemble to pay tribute to the great Louis Armstrong with 3hree for Louis: A Tribute to Louis Armstrong.

Trumpeter, composer, arranger, and author Eddie Allen is one of the  more versatile musicians on the New York scene. He’s called upon to play everything from jazz to R&B/Pop to Latin to symphonic to Broadway, and everything in between.  Allen has worked with such jazz greats as Art Blakey, Billy Harper, Randy Weston, Dizzy Gillespie, and others.  Allen has also performed in Broadway orchestras and authored an instructional method book while continuing to work as a freelance musician and clinician.

Bridging the gap between generations and musical genres, Sweet Plantain Quartet closes out the Centenary Stage Company January Thaw Music Festival on Saturday, Jan. 28, at 8 p.m.  Artfully fusing the western classical traditions in which they were trained with the hip-hop, jazz improv, and Latin rhythms on which they were raised, their unique repertoire and live shows educate and entertain. Through original compositions and arrangements, and with their use of extended percussive techniques, Sweet Plantain awakens audiences to new possibilities in chamber music. Separately hailing from The Bronx, New Jersey, and Venezuela, together these musicians give voice to a sound that is contemporary, multicultural, and very New York.

Tickets for The HooDoo Loungers on Saturday, Jan. 14, at 8 p.m. are $27.50 for adults and $17.50 for children under 12 in advance.

Tickets for 3hree for Louis: A Tribute to Louis Armstrong on Sunday, Jan. 22, at 2 p.m. are $25 for adults and $17.50 for children under 12 in advance.

Sweet Plantain Quartet tickets on Saturday, Jan. 28, at 8 p.m. are $22.50 for adults and $17.50 for children under 12 in advance.

All ticket prices increase $5 the day of the performance.

For more information or to purchase tickets visit centenarystageco.org or call the box office at (908) 979-0900.  The CSC box office is located in the Lackland Performing Arts Center at 715 Grand Ave., Hackettstown.  The box office is open Monday through Friday from 1-5 p.m. and two hours prior to each performance.