New Orleans Brass Bands S/D

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Though they don't have to be from New Orleans. Does anyone listen to this music much? Who are your favorites?

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 4 September 2002 01:51 (7 years ago) Permalink

I know very little about the subject, but I wanna see some answers!

― charlie va, Wednesday, 4 September 2002 02:10 (7 years ago) Permalink

Rebirth Brass Band is definitely classic, they were probably the first brass band music I heard (initially on Maceo Parker's record I believe). Lately some friends have hipped me to Soul Rebels (there is no such thing as too many hip-hop brass bands) and New Birth, and I just heard some Treme Brass Band that's are on the more traditional tip.

I can't go without mentioned the (however unlikely) on the level Wisconsin brass band scene, Mama Digdown's and Youngblood. I'm sure I've hyped up Youngblood on other threads, but they really are something these days, the new Def Jux album will be tight. It wasn't until after I started listening to a lot of other brass band music that I realized how unique their sound is, clean and precise instead of greasy and raucous (both are great in their way of course).

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 4 September 2002 02:39 (7 years ago) Permalink

Jordan, you're not supposed to answer your own question! But thanks for the primer. I did hear the last Rebirth Brass Band album, and it was really great. I think our station's copy came with a parental advisory sticker, which was sorta weird, 'cause I can't imagine too many minors buying that album.

― charlie va, Wednesday, 4 September 2002 02:52 (7 years ago) Permalink

I just wanted to get things rolling. :> I think my main intent was to see if anyone else was into this music and hopefully get some recommendations for bands I haven't heard.

Speaking of which, what about brass bands from neither New Orleans nor Wisconsin?

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 4 September 2002 03:17 (7 years ago) Permalink

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band blows the roof off just about every joint they play -- i've only heard a couple of their recordings, but they translate well, too. ¥

― christoff (christoff), Wednesday, 4 September 2002 11:44 (7 years ago) Permalink

Hey, Jordan, cool thread. I know nothing about this stuff, but I'm curious as hell now. why are there all these bands from wisconsin? know of any good websites where I can get an overview of brass band stuff? any compilations you'd recommend?

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Wednesday, 4 September 2002 22:29 (7 years ago) Permalink

I'm from Madison, Wisconsin, and I know those bands. You can't find a Southern accent in Madison, but you got all these brass bands and New Orleans restaurants popping up. Youngblood and Mama Digdown's even go down to Mardi Gras and perform, though I don't know how seriously they're taken.

The parallel in Minneapolis (where I live) is the Jack Brass Band. I'm all for this kind of thing, but these groups are to Rebirth what Antibalas is to Fela.

I lived in New Orleans for a year and my favorite Rebirth album is still Take It To the Street. Ex-Rebirth member Kermit Ruffins has his own band which is pretty great, too. I find Dirty Dozen boring on CD and in concert, sorry.

My favorite Rebirth story was seeing the guys perform in the bywater one night when members of the Afghan Whigs were in the audience, then seeing the band again in the Zulu parade the next morning. Turns out Rebirth had literally performed all night and went straight to the parade without rest. A float got stuck on a tree, and Rebirth were still energetic enough to challenge a high school band to a battle while the parade stood still. Guess who won.

― Pete Scholtes, Wednesday, 4 September 2002 23:50 (7 years ago) Permalink

The Rebirth Brass Band are indeed genuinely great. The Nutley Brass, probably from somewhere like Yorkshire, did at least one punk cover - Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment - that was fun.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 5 September 2002 17:55 (7 years ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

Saw the Dirty Dozen Brass Band a few years ago and they were superb.

I still listen to 'New Orleans Album' quite regularly, but it's the only one I've got.

I don't suppose anyone's heard the new one (Medicated Magic)?

― James Ball (James Ball), Tuesday, 12 November 2002 17:18 (7 years ago) Permalink

I haven't heard Medicated Magic, but some of the brass band guys I play with weren't too up on it (they would have admittedly picky tastes about this sort of thing). I do wish they would still use a bass drummer and a snare drummer, even though their drummer is great. I'm going to see them here soon, with Youngblood Brass Band is opening up which is cool.

I've been listening non-stop to the New Birth Brass Band record, it is HOT SHIT. Totally on Rebirth's level or more so, and it's probably the most spontaneous, live sounding studio album I've ever heard.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 12 November 2002 22:21 (7 years ago) Permalink

i'm gonna start talking out of my ass because i've never listened to new orleans brass bands nor have i listened to Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy, but wasn't he doing this sortsa stuff. brass interpretations of popular songs like madona and marilyn manson.

or was it not so brass band-y?

― JasonD (JasonD), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 00:48 (7 years ago) Permalink

I've only heard one track by Brass Fantasy (on a brass band comp, heh), but it was very brass band-y and very fantastic.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 04:42 (7 years ago) Permalink

2 years pass...

REVIVE!!!

Recommend me some New Orleans funeral jazz, please!

And I know this is rockist of me, but the older and more authentic, the better..

thanx

― Adam Bruneau (oliver8bit), Tuesday, 23 November 2004 11:05 (5 years ago) Permalink

Um, I don't really listen to much of the old stuff, but I've heard it. Get the Eureka Brass Band, the "This is the first authentic recording of a New Orleans Black brass band that was active at the time of recording. Recorded in New Orleans on August 25, 1951 by Alden Ashforth and David Wyckoff. This compact disc is the best example of the music at a jazz funeral and it defines tradtional brass band music." There are older recordings, like the country brass band from the turn of the century that fills out the Baby Dodd's "Talking and Drum Solos" disc, but really, it's shit.

Other than that, just go to Louisiana Music Factory and check out anything by Treme Brass Band (the most well-known band playing in a really trad style that's still around) or Dejan's Olympia Brass Band.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 23 November 2004 15:12 (5 years ago) Permalink

I really liked the song that Jess put on his blog, from your Rough Guide, Jordan.

― Sanjay McDougal (jaymc), Tuesday, 23 November 2004 15:31 (5 years ago) Permalink

Thanks, Jay. I put another song from that Rebirth album up here along with a couple of other things for some friends.

I'll send you a mix if you want to e-mail me, I'm always happy to spread the gospel. Also my brass band should be playing at the Green Mill again in the next couple months.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 23 November 2004 17:50 (5 years ago) Permalink

i just wanna say that the mix that Jordan sent me is probably one of the most listened cds i've gotten this year

― JaXoN (JasonD), Tuesday, 23 November 2004 17:57 (5 years ago) Permalink

That's great to hear, Jason. I just listened to the Liquid Liquid disc before work today, btw.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 23 November 2004 18:07 (5 years ago) Permalink

Just sticking in another vote here for the ReBirth Brass Band album that has the song on Jordan's comp -- it's called Hot Venom, and it's fantastic. It definitely deserves the parental warning sticker, though (many f-bombs; "Pop That Pussy"). Live, at least here in the North, they are much less hip-hoppy, more of an old-school soul party vibe ("Let's Do It Again / One Love" on the album is representative of that).

― Vornado (Vornado), Tuesday, 23 November 2004 19:18 (5 years ago) Permalink

True, they stuck all the street-est stuff on that one album. It also has my favorite production job of any brass band album, not to mention the four 'bone lineup.

I really hope their 20th anniversary show dvd comes out, the show was sort of a mess but Cheeky Blakk came out and did Pop That Pussy for 15 minutes, humping trombone cases, Kabuki riding on her back, etc. :>

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 23 November 2004 19:26 (5 years ago) Permalink

I played some trumpet in school but disdained the marching band (late summer, they're getting ready for football season, marching around in the mud in red wool uniforms, ughh). Have long regretted that, but garage soul/preppy-frat rock was good."Soulfinger" and "Grazin' In The Grass" my faves. Buckinghams' "Mercy Mercy" led me back to Adderley & Zawinul's original, yclept "Mercy Mercy Mercy", and from there to other Blue Note (the cliche of jazz and pop parting ways WWII never otm). Much liked (first albums of) Electric Flag, Blood Sweat & Tears (pre Clayton Thomas), and Chicago. Now collect high school marching band records, which is among what ("lab bands, stage bands" also) gets LANGLEY SCHOOLS equiv, except for the acclaim, on SCHOOLHOUSE FUNK, compiled by Motorcycle John (AKA DJ SHADOW). From the 70s. Uneven, but amazing. Something I'd heard and thought it was the Dirty Dozen 'til I got it: David Byrne's MUSIC FOR THE KNEE PLAYS. TKP being a segment of Robert Wilson's intercontinental stage/satellite TV cycle, "the CIVIL warS" (broadcast live in sequence, but the Reagan Admin pulled plug on our part). Turns out this music was "inspired by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band." Involving old pros like Chuck Findley, Ernie Watts, Pete Christlieb, and Fred Wesley, and, even though it's got some of that one-size-fits-all ECM train station echo, here it does fit (boomin' in the gloom, and after all it's about life going on during wartime). Also Lester Bowie Brass Fantasy's AVANT POP and others; even getting to recastings of hiphop and that big parade drum for "Beautiful People, Beau'ful PeePUL" on ODYSSEY OF FUNK AND POPULAR MUSIC, his last album (which I reviewed for villagevoice.com; put your Search subject in quotes if you go there)I've always wondered about Mike Westbrook's settings of Blake, and his Drinking Gasoline review, with singer Kate Westbrook. Were those good? (Regis Brass Band is one from New Orleans I've heard live, but never knew of any records. They were really young and firey when I saw 'em.)

― don, Wednesday, 24 November 2004 07:22 (5 years ago) Permalink

Also my brass band should be playing at the Green Mill again in the next couple months.

Yeah, remind me! I've missed you guys a few times now!

― Sanjay McDougal (jaymc), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 07:36 (5 years ago) Permalink

Wow Don, it sounds like you've heard a lot of stuff on the periphery of/influenced by N.O. brass band. You should jump into the real shit, I bet you'd be into it (NB: I don't really like the Dirty Dozen for the most part, and I haven't heard of Regis) --

New Birth Brass Band, D-Boy
Rebirth Brass Band, Hot Venom
Stooges Brass Band, It's About Time
Soul Rebels Brass Band, No More Parades
Lil' Rascals Brass Band, Buck It Like a Horse

Also a word about Derrick 'Kabuki' Shezbie - he's the main trumpet player for Rebirth, and he was in New Birth as a teenager (he's all over D-Boy). He's SO MUCH LOUDER than any trumpet player I've ever heard, not to mention the fire. His sound is completely wide-open and really sums up the brass band sound for me (he takes the solo on the Rebirth tune I posted above).

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 16:45 (5 years ago) Permalink

What I mean to say is, he can blow eight notes on one note and suddenly every other trumpet player and every tricky run becomes irrelevant.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 16:46 (5 years ago) Permalink

oh yeah, that David Byrne "Music for the Knee Plays" is great

― JaXoN (JasonD), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 17:48 (5 years ago) Permalink

and how great is The Ying Yang Twins new song "Halftime". are brass bands and marching bands at all related?

― JaXoN (JasonD), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 17:49 (5 years ago) Permalink

I shy away from the comparison just because it makes people think of their bad Midwest high school pep band and assume that they know what it's about. I'm also sick to death of people saying "oh, you guys must have been in the UW band" or "what drum corps did you march in?" when no one in the band comes from that background at all.

HOWEVER, yeah, they take marching band pretty seriously down south and a lot of those kids have incredible chops. We were standing outside of Tipatina's during a parade last Mardi Gras and this high school trumpet line came by blowing high F's and we were like WHAT?! I think that a huge majority of New Orleans brass band musicians came up in those bands and always check them out during parade season, etc.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 18:05 (5 years ago) Permalink

jordan -- is that yr actual email addy? (I'll do a trade for a copy of that mix).

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 21:01 (5 years ago) Permalink

Yep (change gmale to gmail obv.). That sounds good Julio, I'm sure you have some stuff I'd love to hear.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 21:05 (5 years ago) Permalink

Jordan is 100% otm re: high school bands. New Orleans has like the Delta Force marching bands--all the best music during Mardi Gras can be heard by avoiding the clubs (most of which are hosting jam bands anyway) and hitting the parades further Uptown (before the kids playing are all worn out).

I am also interested in Jordan's mix.

― adam (adam), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 22:21 (5 years ago) Permalink

by avoiding the clubs

But still go to Donna's and the Maple Leaf and Le Bon Temps and Cafe Brasil!

most of which are hosting jam bands anyway)

Oh god this is so horribly OTM.

I am also interested in Jordan's mix.

Send me your address.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 22:37 (5 years ago) Permalink

Dude, Le Bon Temps has the crunkest quesadillas in the city.

― adam (adam), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 23:32 (5 years ago) Permalink

Yas yas, that's what I like about the South. Alabama's Public TV used to broadcast an annual marching band contest, live from Bessemer High School's football field. That sound, across the stadium (and airwaves), not just horns but the drums, it moves me man. Reminds me that Bessemer is the disembarkation point of Sun Ra (and my father). As far as non-high school, don't forget Mississippi's late (and maybe last of a kind) Othar Turner. And I always suspected that those early N.O. parade bands, "soloing" in different keys simulanteously for *one* thing, were an influence on free jazz (Ornette Coleman had played in proto-R&B bands in his native Texas, and toured in a medicine show band, according to A.B. Spellman, and also lived in New Orleans in 1950 or so, when he could have heard some of those guys live, although there was no revival then, was there? And old guys don't usually have the wind to flip out, I know from my own brass, but his wife Jayne Crotez was known to have a killer collection of 78s.Think also of ASCENSION, esp. the better version, eventually relaesed with the *relatively* tamer, more familiar take. And Gary Giddins said that his Jazz History students hit a wall when they got to Air, etc. but loved Henry Threadgill's JELLY ROLLS, which I think was one of the earliest Free-to-Ur foldovers. And some of them got intoFree per se, with JR as their gateway. I was always fascinated by Archie Shepp & Horace Parlan's albums of spiritual and gospel, and notice elements of these primogen. influences in Ayler (listening to the boxset single-disc promo, for inst). Reminds me: don't know how widespread this trend is, but in the CD store where I was working last year, noticed a jazz X gospel trendette, coming from "Jazz" section *and* from gospel (and of course the latter's had crossover from Blind Boys of Alabama and Robert Randolph and the Family Band, but that's getting away from horns altogether)

― don, Thursday, 25 November 2004 01:06 (5 years ago) Permalink

Erm, that would be Jayne Cortez, not "Crotez." Charlie Haden said that before anybody could borrow one of her records, they had to promise to learn to play the songs on it. (She eventually put out her own albums, like the killer early jazz-rap MAINTAIN CONTROL, with mebers of Prime Time, and Ornette as special guest on "There Are No Simple Answers." Again, off-topic, but great[and o course he does play a horn])

― don, Thursday, 25 November 2004 06:25 (5 years ago) Permalink

Fixed the link above for that Rebirth & Slim tune.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 26 November 2004 13:56 (5 years ago) Permalink

We have People TV in Atlanta, and last year I spent a lot of time taing random things off it, marshing band videos being one of them. The beats truly were crunk, and the dancing that accompanied them was straight out of the club.

― Adam Bruneau (oliver8bit), Friday, 26 November 2004 17:47 (5 years ago) Permalink

Marching band videos? You mean like single songs, like pop videos? Whole concerts? Never heard of People TV, is that local to Atlanta?

― don, Friday, 26 November 2004 21:34 (5 years ago) Permalink

Thanks for the links, Jordan. Also, on Public Radio's "Beale Street caravan," I just heard NRBQ with horns, live from Coney Island (the one in Cincinnati, not NY). They kept adding extra beats to "swing"; pretty funny. I'd forgotten, they used to have the Whole Wheat Horns, or maybe they're playing horns themselves, like Z Z Top. Reminds me of HIP-BOP-SKA, by the Skatalites, with guests like Lester Bowie and David Murray. Lester does some of this approach on James Carter's COVERSIN' WITH THE ELDERS, which also has Harry Sweets Edison on trumpet, Buddy Tate on clarinet, Hamiett Bluiett on baritone, and JC plays various reed instruments from his storied collection. It ain't Storyville but it ain't bad. Chicka-boom!

― don, Saturday, 27 November 2004 06:43 (5 years ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

Revive.

In Tower Records I noticed in the new Downbeat magazine a nice article on New Orleans brass bands and more. The Stooges Brass band, Hot 8, and Soul Rebels are all here. I haven't checked to see if the article is online.

As a contributing supporter of afropop.org I get a weekly e-mail thing from them. This week they have a nice photo-essay by Ned Sublette(musician, musicologist and author of that immense book on Cuban music) on New Orleans. Sublette is living there for awhile and studying the Caribbean roots of New Orleans. He's got an interview with Donald Harrison and some others. I think you can check it all out at afropop.org

― steve-k, Saturday, 26 March 2005 17:48 (4 years ago) Permalink

Brass Bands - C/D

― steve-k, Saturday, 26 March 2005 17:53 (4 years ago) Permalink

I wish I had time to go down to Jazzfest at the end of April and into early May and check everybody out. Plus that other fest with swamp pop and Blood Ulmer and more is going on at the rock n bowl.

― steve-k, Saturday, 26 March 2005 20:34 (4 years ago) Permalink

Kermit Ruffins is now on tour...
http://www.basinstreetrecords.com/
http://www.satchmo.com/nolavl/kermit.html

― Pete Scholtes, Sunday, 27 March 2005 02:00 (4 years ago) Permalink

He's got a new cd with Rebirth I believe. I doubt they're together on tour though

― Steve-k (Steve K), Sunday, 27 March 2005 02:34 (4 years ago) Permalink

I downloaded a ton of stuff for free online a while ago. It is great stuff. Can't remember any names, though. I just filled two cds and labelled them New Orleans Jazz 1 and 2. It sounds drunk and it sounds happy and sometimes it stumbles along like a sad drunk but still manages to sound fun. Right after I saw "Wild Man Blues" I decided I should have some of that.

I think one was called Yarl River Blues Band.

― Lemonade Salesman (Eleventy-Twelve), Sunday, 27 March 2005 04:08 (4 years ago) Permalink

http://www.yarl.org/mp3s.htm

― Lemonade Salesman (Eleventy-Twelve), Sunday, 27 March 2005 04:10 (4 years ago) Permalink

Thanks for the heads up Steve! Hot 8 in Downbeat, who knew.

I'll be going down to Jazzfest the first weekend to play with Mama Digdown's and see brass bands, can't wait.

― Jordan (Jordan), Sunday, 27 March 2005 13:07 (4 years ago) Permalink

It should be great.

From the April issue excerpt on Downbeat's website:

Next Generation New Orleans Brass Bands
Brass Beyond The Streets

By Jennifer Odell

Philip Frazier honks his sousaphone on a chilly January Sunday on the corner of Daneel and 3rd streets. Musicians start to shuffle away from the crowd milling outside the Bean Brothers Bar and strap on horns and snare drums, ready to get their roll on. Dancers for the Undefeated Dicas Social Aid and Pleasure Club come around the corner and tubas, sousaphones, saxophones and bass drums fall in line as the Divas belt out The Staple Singers’ “I’ll Take You There.”

Winding past Mary’s Nightowl Bar, Candlelight Bar, Sandpiper and The New Look, the parading community group hits all of the Uptown neighborhood’s brass band stops. Ostrich plumes fan the air above the Divas in time with Frazier’s non-stop vamps. When the dancers slow down and form a circle, trading moves with kids, the band plays even harder, echoing braay swueals off the projects across the street. This is how brass band music was born.

But it’s growing up. And while playing the second lines and funerals remains important, many of today’s hottest brass players are concentrating more on polishing their CDs and getting national recognition than on stealing the show on Sunday afternoons. The current generation is following the successful business model created by the Dirty Dozen and Rebirth brass bands; updating a traditional sound to make the music relevant to a larger audience. And with each step forward, another cross-breed of the brass band sound is born. Mardi Gras Indian bands like Big Sam’s Funky Nation are based in funk, the Soul Rebels are purveyors of hip-hop and the Hot 8, New Birth and the Stooges hold down the street scene with their bebop-heavy takes on the traditional style.

― Steve-k (Steve K), Sunday, 27 March 2005 16:07 (4 years ago) Permalink

From afropop.org

MARDI GRAS 2005: a photo essay by Ned Sublette
Also Check out Interviews with Joseph Roach, Donald Harrison, and Vicki Mayer by Ned Sublette

― Steve-k (Steve K), Sunday, 27 March 2005 16:14 (4 years ago) Permalink

there was some sorta Folkways record i checked out in Fredericksburg, Texas, and it dirged and dirtied heaving heavier than a mule cry, as syrupy and sun-stroked than just about anything i could think of (though that recent Sub Rosa Tibetan ceremony thing is sorta close). one of those New Orleans series ones. don't know if a single tortoise tune clocked in under eight minutes...

― imbidimts, Sunday, 27 March 2005 16:30 (4 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 813 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Wednesday, 23 September 2009 18:16 (4 months ago) Permalink

Those parades (and Rebirth) are awesome.

― curmudgeon, Monday, 5 October 2009 03:27 (4 months ago) Permalink

Now this Ned Sublette hosted event will be pretty cool too (in a different kind of way). I saw Yale prof Robert Farris Thompson do a talk on African and Latin music once that was awesome. He is a showman and an intellectual.

At the invitation of the Jazz and Heritage Foundation, I've organized an event that will take place on the afternoon of Saturday, November 14 in New Orleans. I believe the title we've settled on is "Congo Square: Crossroads of the Afro-Atlantic World." I will give a talk about what the bamboula of Congo Square probably sounded like, with the help of Alex Lasalle on percussion, followed by a talk titled "Kongo with a 'K'" by none other than Master T himself, Robert Farris Thompson, and a panel with Freddi Williams Evans, Connie Zeanah Atkinson, Herreast Harrison, and Luther Gray, and a workshop/party with Alex Lasalle and New Orleans percussionists. This is in association with the J & HF's Congo Square Rhythms Festival, which takes place the following day.

― curmudgeon, Monday, 5 October 2009 03:31 (4 months ago) Permalink

http://wayneandwax.com/?p=2444#comment-11501

― curmudgeon, Friday, 9 October 2009 04:35 (4 months ago) Permalink

That link is in part about hiphop funky New Orleans brass banders influencing balkan style brass groups

― curmudgeon, Friday, 9 October 2009 13:22 (4 months ago) Permalink

fuck "honk!" imo

― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Friday, 9 October 2009 13:57 (4 months ago) Permalink

Yep. And some of that I did not get.

But here's some more interesting news:

Derrick Tabb, Rebirth Brass Band drummer and founder of The Roots of Music education program in New Orleans, is one of 10 nominees for CNN’s Hero of the Year. The Times-Picayune ArchiveDerrick Tabb of the Rebirth Brass drummer and founder of The Roots of Music program heard that he’d be a finalist for CNN's Hero of the Year award via a phone call Wednesday night. Thursday, Anderson Cooper announced the finalists on CNN.
He receives $25,000 for the honor, and will join the other nominees – who include the founder of a mobile soup kitchen in New York, an Indonesian orphanage operator and a Filipino literacy advocate – at “CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute,” to be televised at 8 p.m. November 26.

At that event, one of the 10 will be selected CNN Hero of the Year and will be awarded an additional $100,000.

― curmudgeon, Friday, 9 October 2009 15:13 (4 months ago) Permalink

Just curious, why the honk hate? A friend of mine went last year (has connections with Bread and Puppets,) and it seemed interesting to me.

― Such A Hilbily (Dan Peterson), Friday, 9 October 2009 15:26 (4 months ago) Permalink

this is my own problem, but i'm a hater when it comes to "wacky" brass bands, especially when they play new orleans brass band tunes. the real bands have such a deep connection to the music and the level of musicianship is so high, it seems really lame and borderline disrespectful when 20 people put on silly hats, pull out their high school instruments, and play shitty & funkless versions of rebirth songs. even though it's fun music, it's something i take seriously, so i don't have time for bands to whom it's a joke.

― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Friday, 9 October 2009 15:42 (4 months ago) Permalink

Fair enough. That linked band didn't do much for me, either. I was thinking more along the lines of Minneapolis' Brass Messengers, a group I like a lot, silly hats and all.

― Such A Hilbily (Dan Peterson), Friday, 9 October 2009 17:32 (4 months ago) Permalink

yeah, they're obviously going for something totally different. i'm not especially interested in that kind of brass band music, but it's cool. i know the clarinet player, he plays in a traditional jazz band in the cities with the sousaphonist from my band.

― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Friday, 9 October 2009 17:38 (4 months ago) Permalink

i could keep linking awful honk! bands but what's the point, when there are so many good second line videos:

― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Friday, 9 October 2009 17:41 (4 months ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

Not exactly a New orleans brass band event, but this New Orleans happening is related sorta:

From author/musician Ned Sublette's e-mail:

Leading scholars on African and Caribbean culture, and their impact on New Orleans, will gather on Saturday, Nov. 14, for a symposium entitled “Congo
Square: Crossroads of the Afro-Atlantic World.”

The symposium, which is free and open to the public, takes place at the Jazz & Heritage Center (1225 N. Rampart Street), from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.

...The day following the symposium, the Jazz & Heritage Foundation will present the third annual Congo Square Rhythms Festival in nearby Armstrong Park. The festival is free and open to the public. It will feature music, food and a large crafts area. Performers include Ensemble Fatien (featuring Ivorian multi-instrumentalist Seguenon Kone, Dr. Michael White, Sunpie Barnes and others), the Kumbuka African Dance Ensemble and many more.

Congo Square: Crossroads of the Afro-Atlantic World” features Ned Sublette, author of “The World That Made New Orleans,” Yale University African culture scholar Robert Farris Thompson, musician Alex LaSalle of the Puerto Rican group Alma Moyó and others in a day-long series of discussions and workshops.

The final hour of the symposium will feature a drum workshop and a cocktail reception.

The schedule of events is as follows:

1:00 p.m. Welcome and Introductions
Presentation by Ned Sublette, “Rocking the City, Cracking the
Code: Bámbula at Congo Square”
2:30 p.m. Presentation by Robert Farris Thompson, “Kongo with a ‘K’”
3:30 p.m. Break
3:45 p.m. Panel Discussion: Perspectives on Congo Square Freddi Williams Evans: “Congo Square Through the Years”
Connie Zeanah Atkinson: “Place Publique: The Historical Congo Square”
Herreast Harrison and Robert Farris Thompson: A Dialogue Luther Gray: “Advocating for Congo Square”
5:00 p.m. Drum Workshop (featuring Alex LaSalle and Luther Gray) and Cocktail Reception

― curmudgeon, Thursday, 12 November 2009 06:24 (2 months ago) Permalink

Ballou High School Marching Band represent! This band from one of the poorest neighborhoods in DC has been chosen to appear in the Macy's Parade in NY and to do an outdoor lunchtime appearance at Lincoln Center

http://www.balloumovie.com/trailer.html

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 25 November 2009 04:25 (2 months ago) Permalink

There's some nice drumline footage from them on Youtube. Oh, and the Lincoln Center Atrium gig is at night.

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 25 November 2009 14:32 (2 months ago) Permalink

The Offbeat Magazine December issue is out and they highlight some of their fave Louisiana albums for the year. But I don't see any brass bands or hiphop.

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 25 November 2009 14:34 (2 months ago) Permalink

I can't believe Offbeat thinks that Tom McDermott trad r'n'b piano cd is the best Louisiana album of the year.

― curmudgeon, Saturday, 28 November 2009 05:57 (2 months ago) Permalink

Anyone got Rebirth Brass Band's _Rollin'_? Any good? I heard "Shake them titties/Mercy mercy mercy" recently and it made me really want to start looking into this music. Figure I might as well start with the album it's on.
Still, I see Jordan and Vornado praising _Hot Venom_, so perhaps I should go for that. (Greed will probably win out and I'll get BOTH, if I can!)

Been playing _25th Anniversary_ on Spotify and digging it. Wtf @ me not knowing any brass music beyond, uh, Fanfare Ciocarlia. Love the enthusiasm in this thread!

― Øystein, Friday, 4 December 2009 13:37 (2 months ago) Permalink

imo rollin' is the best of their old-school albums, the one where second line funk (or whatever you want to call it) sound is really getting defined. the first three tracks are fire, but i prefer the albums after kabuki (trumpet) got in the band, like 'the main event: live at the maple leaf' and 'hot venom'.

also highly recommend new birth brass band's 'd-boy' as an intro.

― hey trader joe's! i've got the new steely dan. (Jordan), Friday, 4 December 2009 16:04 (2 months ago) Permalink

Jordan, is the TBC Brass Band's '09 effort your fave new Orleans release of '09? Or at least fave studio release? Or is it by someone else? Or have none of this year's studio efforts matched up to live things you've heard?

― curmudgeon, Friday, 4 December 2009 16:11 (2 months ago) Permalink

well, nothing really lives up to live stuff when it comes to this music, but 'modern times' is definitely my favorite new orleans release of '09, yeah.

― hey trader joe's! i've got the new steely dan. (Jordan), Friday, 4 December 2009 16:24 (2 months ago) Permalink

btw my band is having our cd release party next weekend. it should be out digitally by the end of the year.

― hey trader joe's! i've got the new steely dan. (Jordan), Friday, 4 December 2009 16:24 (2 months ago) Permalink

jordan, give us a top ten of awesome brass band things to look at. pretty please.

― Crackle Box, Friday, 4 December 2009 21:00 (2 months ago) Permalink

ok, i posted it on the brass band blog i started a year ago and never did anything with: http://chickenintheback.wordpress.com/

― hey trader joe's! i've got the new steely dan. (Jordan), Friday, 4 December 2009 21:43 (2 months ago) Permalink

from Offbeat.com

SAD FAREWELL

On Monday, clarinet player Ralph Johnson died at 71. In addition to (performing with fellow) locals Dr. John, Johnny Adams and Chuck Carbo, Johnson played with Jerry Butler and the Impressions. Services will be held Friday at St. Peter Claver Church (1923 St. Phillip St.). The viewing will take place from 9-11 a.m., and at 11 there will be a Mass.

― curmudgeon, Thursday, 10 December 2009 14:58 (1 month ago) Permalink

Y'know, I was just spinning Chuck Carbo's Barber's Blues CD recently and wondered what happened to him since. Never heard that he had passed away last year. I don't recall him ever playing Jazzfest when I was down there either.

― Such A Hilbily (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 10 December 2009 15:35 (1 month ago) Permalink

Apparently in July '08. I was just reading about a Carbo reissue in Offbeat and thinking why don't I have any music of his. I wonder if his old stuff has been reissued--this is the stuff I want to hear (though the subsequent stuff sounds of interest too)--

http://www.wwoz.org/new+orleans+community/chuck+carbo+memoriam

In the early '50s Carbo, his brother Chick and two friends joined the local Zion City Harmonizers, which eventually became the Delta Southernaires.

When they were offered a recording contract by Dave Bartholomew for Imperial Records, they changed their name to the Spiders and eventually became the best known R&B vocal group out of New Orleans. Their initial release of "I Didn't Want to Do It" paired with "You're the One" brought the group national fame. Their biggest hit, "Witchcraft," which came out in 1955, climbed to number five on the R&B charts.

But you probably already know that

― curmudgeon, Thursday, 10 December 2009 16:49 (1 month ago) Permalink

Honestly, those might be the ONLY two Spiders songs I know. There's a spendy and typically awesome-looking Bear Family set I probably need.

The two Rounder Carbo CDs are pretty good, and dirt cheap on Amazon. His vocals are a little the worse for wear, but there's a lived-in quality to them that gets me, a bit like Snooks Eaglin. Also in the changer that day, Tommy Ridgley's Since The Blues Began and Johnny Adams' Walkin' On A Tightrope: Songs Of Percy Mayfield.

― Such A Hilbily (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 10 December 2009 17:20 (1 month ago) Permalink

RIP Ernest Skipper. Here is what Dan Phillips said about this obscure hero at Dan's awesome Home of the Groove blog

http://homeofthegroove.blogspot.com/2008/01/here-come-da-indians.html

Ernest Skipper's "Shot Gun Joe" with Flag & The Boys is a rave-up of a record. There are some whistling synth drum flourishes; and the snare and kick drum may even be electronic, too, as their simple pattern doesn't change much; but there is plenty of percussion in the mix to funkify things nicely. Everybody's rippin' and runnin', especially the Dirty Dozen. That would be Kirk Joseph pushing the bottom on sousaphone; and the tenor sax solo is wicked. If this record came out in 1982 or 1983, it may also be the Dirty Dozen's earliest appearance on record, as their first LP (on Concord Jazz) came out in 1984. Despite it's title, the song bears no resemblance to the Golden Eagles "Shotgun Joe" that appeared on the Lightning and Thunder CD in 1988. Instead the song seems to be a precursor to "Let's Go Get 'Em" as done by Dollis, Boudreaux and the Rebirth on that Super Sunday CD. Papa Mali also used the same groove and riff from the verses on "Early In The Morning", an Indian-inspired track on his CD, Do Your Thing, that came out last year and was featured here.

I still don't know anything about Ernest Skipper* * *. Was he a part of the Yellow Pocahontas? They are an old line Indian gang that operated out of the Treme neighborhood, just West of the French Quarter (and still may - though neighborhoods have changed post-Katrina). If you have any more details, please let me know. Anyway, whoever the heck he is, props to him for making an undeservedly obscure Mardi Gras record that demands spontaneous trance dancing as long as it is possible to remain vertical. Hoombah! Fire by the bayou!

* * *[UPDATE: NolaFunk NYC has infomred me that one Ernie 'Shotgun Joe' Skipper will be DJing on Mardi Gras Day at the Backstreet Cultural Museum in the Historic Treme District. See the Comments to this post for all the details - sounds like a fantabulous holiday with mucho Mardi Gras Indians and other assorted revelers, plus the New Birth Brass Band funkin' it up. Thanks for this huge heads up. I'm on the trail of Mr.Skipper now!]

[12/18/2009 - R.I.P Ernest Skipper, Jr. I was saddened to learn last week in the comments to this post of the passing of Mr. Skipper. According to a notice by Ben Berman at Offbeat, he served as Grand Marshall of the the Young Tuxedo Brass Band and also fronted the Thunder Blues Band. Services are today with a second line to follow. Hope they play "Shotgun Joe". You can still hear that great contribution to Mardi Gras music in rotation at HOTG Radio.

― curmudgeon, Monday, 21 December 2009 05:30 (1 month ago) Permalink

soul rebels released their live cd: http://louisianamusicfactory.com/showoneprod.asp?TypeID=72&ProductID=6635

the liner notes there are pretty bitter, wow.

― hey trader joe's! i've got the new steely dan. (Jordan), Monday, 28 December 2009 19:50 (1 month ago) Permalink

Yes indeed. Speaking of the Rebels, I see in a recent Keith Spera article that REM just went to see the Rebels perform in New Orleans. REM is recording in New Orleans

For the Music Shed sessions, Buck, Stipe and Mills called in local trombonists Mark Mullins, Craig Klein and Greg Hicks of Bonerama -- Mills joined Bonerama on stage at Tipitina’s in November 2006 for a Friends of Music Coalition benefit -- plus Shamarr Allen and Leroy Jones on flugelhorn. A bearded Stipe shot brief iPhone videos of the New Orleans horns in action, which he posted on R.E.M.’s Web site.

The visiting rock stars did not confine themselves to the studio. One or more popped up at shows around town, including Son Volt at The Parish of the House of Blues; the last entry, following dozens of names, on the guest list for a sold-out Neko Case gig at Republic New Orleans was “R.E.M.” Allen also escorted R.E.M. to see the New Orleans Moonshiners on Frenchmen Street and the Soul Rebels Brass Band at Le Bon Temps Roule on Magazine Street.

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2009/12/rem_records_in_the_garden_dist.html

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 29 December 2009 03:07 (1 month ago) Permalink

going hard:

i like that new soul rebels cd btw, most of it is slamming.

― hey trader joe's! i've got the new steely dan. (Jordan), Wednesday, 6 January 2010 20:27 (1 month ago) Permalink

Their membership has changed a bit over the years, right?

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 6 January 2010 20:28 (1 month ago) Permalink

yeah, sax and sousaphone have changed up, and i know there were other brass players (like big sam & andrew baham) in the band over the years, but the drummers & most of the frontline have been solid.

― hey trader joe's! i've got the new steely dan. (Jordan), Wednesday, 6 January 2010 20:34 (1 month ago) Permalink

2 weeks pass...

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2009/12/new_orleans_saints_tribute_son.html

Who Dat? Songs about the New Orleans Saints via the NO Times-Picayune.

― curmudgeon, Monday, 25 January 2010 15:05 (2 weeks ago) Permalink

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 26 January 2010 06:42 (2 weeks ago) Permalink

going to new orleans this weekend...playing with the stooges for krewe du vieux, then digdown @ donna's afterwards

― rinse the lemonade (Jordan), Tuesday, 26 January 2010 15:18 (2 weeks ago) Permalink

Man, that's gonna be a magical atmosphere to play in.

― Fetchboy, Tuesday, 26 January 2010 15:20 (2 weeks ago) Permalink

Well, it's up to music fans and bands to save New Orleans now...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harry-shearer/obama-to-new-orleans-reco_b_439759.html

the administration is letting the Office of Gulf Coast Recovery quietly die.

― curmudgeon, Thursday, 28 January 2010 15:15 (1 week ago) Permalink

does anyone love the Eureka Brass Band? I'm trying to find old footage and have material that I can't source. Any clues, hints, pointers welcome....

― klthorson, Thursday, 28 January 2010 21:05 (1 week ago) Permalink

Jordan's the expert around here but I wonder if even he knows real old-school groups like that. Maybe he knows people who do though

― curmudgeon, Friday, 29 January 2010 00:28 (1 week ago) Permalink

Saw Trombone Shorty playing on ESPN this morning (pre-Super Bowl hype in effect)

― curmudgeon, Friday, 29 January 2010 15:55 (1 week ago) Permalink

A number of schools have canceled classes for Feb. 8, the day after the Super Bowl. A civil trial has been postponed. Mardi Gras parades have been moved. Commander’s Palace, the 130-year-old grand dame of New Orleans restaurants, will close on game night, the first time the restaurant has closed for a one-time event in memory, possibly ever. From the NY Times

― curmudgeon, Friday, 29 January 2010 19:13 (1 week ago) Permalink

I bet they're second-lining now

― curmudgeon, Monday, 8 February 2010 03:16 (Yesterday) Permalink

http://www.nola.com/superbowl/index.ssf/2010/02/kermit_ruffins_bar_ground_zero.html

― curmudgeon, Monday, 8 February 2010 04:37 (Yesterday) Permalink

Free Agents are playing our festival later this month--they're good, i gather?

― autotuna fish (Tape Store), Monday, 8 February 2010 06:08 (Yesterday) Permalink

i don't know much about the old pre-revival bands, but i know people who know people who do.

free agents get it done, yeah.

― rinse the lemonade (Jordan), Monday, 8 February 2010 15:45 (Yesterday) Permalink

I'd love to be there this week.

― Pete Scholtes, Monday, 8 February 2010 15:53 (Yesterday) Permalink

"Who Dat say they gonna beat them Saints" chant and Young Fellows Brass Band and more and a few quick shots that are kinda not safe for work

― curmudgeon, Monday, 8 February 2010 20:25 (Yesterday) Permalink

January 2010 Treme Brass Band footage

― curmudgeon, Monday, 8 February 2010 20:35 (Yesterday) Permalink

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