Todd Londagin is one dapper dude; he's dashing and downright debonair. His slick Hollywood good looks may precede (but never overshadow) his trumpet playing, or the relaxed cadence of his pleasant tenor. Based in New York City, Londagin fronts his own five-piece and 18-piece outfits. He swings elegantly with class - and the world-weary wisdom of an old-school busker.

Londagin started out on the street in The Flying Neutrino's Family Jazz Band. "It was part circus, part cult, part busking family band, and part Gypsy," he says. "It ranged from seven [players] to 20 or more. It was kind of a traveling, ragtag bunch of people that decided to live an alternative lifestyle. It was just my mom and I and a bunch of other people of different stripes and backgrounds."

This Gypsy blood wanderlust colors Londagin's post-war, big-band jump with an interesting subtext.

"My background," he says, "it's a different one, for sure. Besides the story of my unusual upbringing - that didn't involve school or band camp, or any of that stuff - I was handed a trombone at 7 and told to play and dance and sing." And that's just what he did, on the streets of Mexico, Canada, Europe, and the United States.

Londagin was born in New Orleans. The band was based there for a while, and young Londagin honed his chops playing for drunk tourists in Jackson Square, Bourbon Street, and Royal Street.

"That's where I learned to tap dance and play," he says. "And juggle."

Nowadays Londagin plays indoors at keen jazz joints, celebrity shindigs, and high-end corporate events. With whatever line-up he fronts, Londagin is riveting. But in these instances, folks have paid at the door, or they've been invited; they want to be there. Buskers, on the other hand, are shooting at a moving target.

"When you're busking, it's rough," he says. "You're out in the elements. But there is something to be learned and something to be gained by playing on the street. When you can actually stop people in traffic, stop people from where they're rushing off to in the New York streets and check you out and give you some money, then there's something to be said for that. When we could do that it was pretty cool."

Yet he feels the club gigs are harder.

"It's a bit more work," he says. "To have a sit-down audience that paid good money to see you, and is expecting to get your take on the music, and be amazed and entertained.... It should be easy for me, but I find it challenging."

Often the audience's take on Londagin's take draws comparisons to Chet Baker. You'd think he'd be sick of it.

"You know, I'm not," he says. "Chet Baker is certainly one of my heroes. I don't try to imitate him. But there's a certain quality your voice is given, and then there's what you've been listening to as a kid and what you've learned to love. I love Nat King Cole, and I certainly don't sound like him."

He continues talks more about the music of his youth, but that adds a caveat: he wasn't able to listen to too much "because we rarely had electricity or carried around a record player," he says.

Those of you who do have electricity or travel around with a CD player can dig Londagin's self-produced "Introducing Todd Londagin," or catch him live for a night of sweet swing and jazz. Who knows? He might even don the tap shoes. The busker is still in the boy.

"I've been trying to ignore it for a long time," he says. "But then I realized, no, it's in me. Then I gotta pull some of that out every once in a while. And it's fun." 

Todd Londagin Band

Club Pass Big Tent, Main & Gibbs streets

Monday, June 16

8:30 & 10 p.m. | $20, or Club Pass | 232-1900, rochesterjazz.com