For 35 years, the Pennsylvania Jazz Society has brought many of the United States' most famous musicians playing Big Band music to the Lehigh Valley.

The latest is Vince Giordano and his Nghthawks, 2 p.m. April 7, Fowler Blast Furnace Room, ArtsQuest Center, Steel Stacks, 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem.

The New York City-based 11-piece Nighthawks is the "house band" and has been seen on the hit HBO series, "Boardwalk Empire."

The band's CD, one of its nine releases, "Boardwalk Empire Volume 1 - Music from the HBO Original Series," received a 2012 Grammy for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media.

The band hasn't quit its night gig, playing Monday and Tuesday nights at Sofia's Restaurant, Times Square.

Last year, Giordano and Wynton Marsalis performed 12 shows at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola in Lincoln Center, playing the music of Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five and Hot Seven.

The band, composed of musicians from all over nation, some whom have bands of their own, specializes in "hot jazz," the music of the 1920s and '30s.

Giordano, 61, born in Brooklyn, and raised in Long Island, found his love of music at age five while sifting through and listening to a collection of 78 rpm records his grandmother had tucked away in the attic of her house.

His first instrument was the violin, switching to tuba in seventh grade. Later, he learned to play the upright double bass and bass saxophone.

"In third grade, they had an aptitude test, which I passed, and the only instruments they had for me were string instruments. I ended up with the violin, but had a terrible time. The teacher was weird. She made us all cry, and eventually all the kids quit," Giordano says.

"I did nothing after that until the seventh grade when I told the music teacher I wanted to play a trumpet or trombone. He told me they needed a tuba guy, and gave me a mouthpiece.

"I thought the sound was terrible, but he told me I was great, so I took the tuba home and ended up playing with one of my 78 records until I got the beat. Later on, he asked me to try the string bass. He told me most tuba players in those days also play the string bass, and he was soon teaching me."

Giordano got a job in an antiques store, where he was "paid" in merchandise of a banjo and some 78s. One record had the sound of an unusual instrument on it.

He took the record to school. The band director listened and told him the instrument he was curious about was a bass saxophone. A used bass saxophone was found, purchased and refurbished.

Giordano played in school music groups. At 14, he got his first professional gig playing the banjo in a banjo band.

He joined the musicians' union and met pianist and arranger Bill Challis, who became his mentor and closest friend. Challis introduced him to a wide range of musicians.

Giordano began to play in New York with theatrical pit bands and jazz groups, including the new Paul Whiteman Orchestra, Leon Redbone, on radio's "A Prairie Home Companion," and with Challis's best friend, Bix Beiderbecke and the Memorial Jazz Band. In 1975, Giordano founded the Nighthawks.

"Challis was the guy that got me going," says Giordano. "I also owe a lot to Dick Hyman, who I met one day in a record store. I told him how great I thought he was and gave him my card. I asked him to call me if he ever needed a guy that played all the instruments I did.

"To my surprise, he called me one day. He was doing a lot of old themed films, and that led my entry into the film world. I did six Woody Allen films. I also met a guy by the name of Bob Wilbur when we were playing in the Red Blazer in New York. He was making the [director Francis Ford Coppola] movie, 'Cotton Club,' and needed a white-themed band for his movie."

Giordano has worked with Dick Hyman's Orchestra on soundtracks for six Woody Allen films, including "Sweet and Lowdown." Giordano and his band have been onscreen and in the studio for several movies, including director Martin Scorsese's "The Aviator," Sam Mendes' "Revolutionary Road" and Robert De Niro's "The Good Shepherd."

Giordano added to his notoriety after meeting record producer Ahmet Ertegun.

"This bald-headed guy with a goatee walked into Sweetwater's in Manhattan one day when I was playing and booked me at the Carlyle Hotel. From then on, I was playing every high-society gig in New York."

Music historian Giordano has collected more than 60,000 arrangements. He was featured on the 2011 PBS series, "Michael Feinstein's American Songbook."