Sunday night. The Bob Dorough Trio takes the stage at the Old Town School of Folk Music. The crowd is a mix of thirtysomethings, fortysomethings, former slackers, eternal slackers and jazzophiles. It's a full house--to this generation Bob Dorough is a lesser-known deity.

From 1973 through 1985, ABC-Television produced forty-one episodes of the coyly educational cartoon series set to music, "Schoolhouse Rock!" These three-minute, hook-heavy morsels taught us the parts of speech; multiplication tables; even the Preamble.

Dorough composed and performed many of these melodious snippets of pop culture: "Conjunction, Junction"; "Three is a Magic Number"; "My Hero Zero"; "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here"; et al. As he sits at his piano sporting a long pony tail and a toothy grin, Dorough launches into a set of lesser-known jazz standards and original compositions. He baits the audience with the knowledge that "Schoolhouse" material will come later.

But as you sit and listen to that voice, you get a sad feeling. That old-timer's feeling of "I remember when a candy bar was a nickel." You realize that they just don't make 'em like they used to. But wait. Dorough is here. Right before your very eyes and ears. While he ranges through obscure Hoagy Carmichael compositions and ivories his way through his own songs like "Devil May Care," you have an odd epiphany. He doesn't even need to play the "Schoolhouse Rock!" material tonight.

You've grown up and his jazz is even better.

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