Most folks, looking back on their high school band participation, are somewhat mortified: think ill-fitting, semi-absurdist polyester uniforms (often involving feathered hats with chin straps), hokey anthems, and lots of off-key sax solos. Not so for the Eau Claire Memorial Jazz Orchestra, which was named one of the country's best jazz bands at The Essentially Ellington Competition and Festival, has performed at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis, and counts Bon Iver's Justin Vernon — Eau Claire's most famous son — amongst its alumni.

In April 2009, Vernon re-joined the band for its annual fund-raising concert, playing a selection of jazz standards and two tracks ("Lump Sum," "For Emma") from his debut LP, For Emma, Forever Ago. Although Vernon is hardly a jazz singer, his gauzy, haunting compositions are bolstered — to a surprising degree — by the addition of steady, swooning horns and the occasional woodwind solo, and his high, heady falsetto, when paired with a classic track like Duke Ellington's "Rocks in My Bed," is genuinely lovely. A Decade with Duke is a warm, soulful, and intimate record — like the best live recordings, it makes you wish, desperately, that you had been there.