From the boozily braying New Orleans pop of "Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand" to the coyly cubist blowing of "Artie Shaw" to the irreducible self-description of "Blue and Sentimental," it was a busy year for Bernstein and the band, which found them earning well-deserved praise from unlikely quarters and new audiences.

Though Sex Mob are undoubtedly a jazz band at heart, their sheer flexibility as musicians has allowed each of them fruitful jobs as working musicians, equally adept in the rock, pop, and commercial worlds (all of which find their way back into Sex Mob's sound). For Bernstein, that includes session work (Lou Reed, They Might Be Giants, Linda Ronstadt), film scoring (Robert Altman's Kansas City), and even gigging with a wedding band.

And that's not to mention his work on Diaspora Blues (a recent Tzadik release focusing on the Jewish cantorial music of Moshe Koussevitsky), or a weekly gig with the Millennial Territory Orchestra (a loose knit all-star mini-big band), Scherr's fine solo rock album released on Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley's Smells Like Records label, his contributions with Wollesen and others to Norah Jones' Grammy-winning Come Away With Me, and on and on.

If Bernstein's a man happily in demand, then he's in pure bliss when leading Sex Mob. His avuncular directorial style was transferred full-on to the three-day session, which concluded with all of the musicians performing together on material they hadn't rehearsed, let alone seen beforehand. "That's what I'm trying to deal with: musicians communicating with each other when they play. They don't know the songs, so they're listening, and someone plays something that affects the next person, so they're just using their ears and they're reacting and using their reactions to make the performance," Bernstein says.

Whether it's an arrival or departure for Sex Mob, Dime Grind Palace surely stands shining as a gemmed milestone in an already storied career, a lustrous home where all are welcome.

SEX MOB TOUR
• 
• SEX MOB HORNS on the ROPEADOPE NEW MUSIC SEMINAR TOUR
  
• Wednesday, November 10
  Hotel Fort Des Moines Grand Ballroom
  Des Moines, IA
  
• Thursday, November 11
  University Of Iowa Union Ballroom
  Iowa City, IA
  
• Friday, November 12
  Park West
  Chicago, IL
  
• Saturday, November 13
  Granada Theatre
  Lawrence, KS
  
• Sunday, November 14
  Fox Theatre
  Boulder, CO
  
• Monday, November 15
  Suede
  Park City, UT
  
• Tuesday, November 16
  The Showbox
  Seattle, WA
  
• Thursday, November 18
  The Alladin Theater
  Portland, OR
  
• Friday & Saturday , November 19 & 20
  The Independent
  San Francisco, CA
  
• Sunday, November 21
  The Troubadour
  Los Angeles, CA