These days, veteran jazzman Marty Grosz's gifts as a raconteur may somewhat overshadow his well-honed talents as a guitarist, but as an ambulant piece of oral jazz history he can draw on a wealth of experience for his anecdotage.
Being born in 1930s Berlin was hardly a barrel of laughs or the centre of the jazz universe, but his family cured that by quickly moving to New York, where jazz beckoned. He settled in Chicago for 20 years from the mid-50s, with the result that some legendary traditional figures now have walk-on parts in his stories - people like Albert Ammons, Floyd O'Brien, Art Hodes and Jim Lannigan.
Over the years he has played in Bob Wilber and Kenny Davern's Soprano Summit and appeared at the White House. Next Wednesday he appears for the Dublin Jazz Society at the Stakis Hotel and those who have heard his tales before won't need any urging at all to go and hear it all again.