New Orleans Brass Bands S/D

well, on the one hand he's a legend, basically brass band royalty (same family as trombone shorty, derrick tabb, many others), best singer to come out of the brass band scene, great trombone player, been playing in New Birth and other bands for years. and he wrote this classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9pd8VWyibA

on the other hand, his solo shows can be a little...much? can definitely feel pandering, and then he'll do things like play his 'rock star' tune for 20 min and crowd surf.

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2014/07/lionel_ferbos_the_longest-tenu_1.html

RIP Lionel Ferbos at 103

Trumpeter Lionel Ferbos, who enjoyed a late-in-life celebrity as the oldest active jazz musician in New Orleans, died early Saturday, July 19. He celebrated his 103rd birthday two nights earlier, on July 17, at a party at the Palm Court Jazz Café, a favorite venue of his.

Mr. Ferbos was the personification of quiet dedication to craft. Even some residents of his 7th Ward neighborhood, he once said, didn't realize he was a musician — they knew him as a master tinsmith who had taken over his father's sheet metal business. That occupation sustained him and his family for decades.

But he always nurtured a musical career on the side.

"He proved that the greatness of the city of New Orleans is that ordinary people can be extraordinary on a daily basis," said trumpeter and New Orleans Jazz Orchestra founder Irvin Mayfield. "Everyone has an opportunity to be something special. The culture gives us the opportunity. He was an example of that."

His life in music spanned the Roosevelt administration to the Obama administration, the Great Depression to the Internet era. Louis Armstrong was only 10 years his senior, but Mr. Ferbos outlived Armstrong by more than 40 years.

Last time I was was in NO, in 2008, I made it point to see not only his Jazzfest set, but also went to see him at Palm Court, figuring it would probably be my last time, if not his. RIP.

http://www.offbeat.com/2014/07/22/music-man-jim-russell-dies/

http://www.offbeat.com/2014/07/23/jamal-batiste-drums-his-way-into-james-brown-biopic-get-on-up/?utm_source=WB+07+24+14+&utm_campaign=WB+07+24+14&utm_medium=email

New Orleans drummer Jamal Baptiste is playing (the still alive) drummer for James Brown, Jabo Starks in the new James Brown movie

Batiste

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2014/07/idris_muhammad_legendary_new_o.html

Idris Muhammad, whose drumming crossed over several musical styles including funk, jazz, and rhythm and blues, died Tuesday (July 29).

Williams said that Muhammad got his first national touring gig with Sam Cooke before moving on to Jerry Butler, Curtis Mayfield and beyond.

"He was eclectic in terms of his playing," Williams said. "He mixed the New Orleans sound, that sound of the street music, with jazz music and rock 'n' roll, and had all that intertwined," Williams explained. "He tuned his drum to get the sound from the New Orleans street bands, the marching bands, and he'd get that kind of sound that would come from New Orleans. That's why he was so sought after.

"He had the syncopation of New Orleans."

The news devastated the WWOZ-FM staff, who had gotten to know Muhammad personally and through his music. After learning of the news, Wednesday's (July 30) "Morning Set" jazz show featured plenty of Muhammad's work.

http://www.waxpoetics.com/features/articles/idris-muhammad-interview

More on his New Orleans drumming roots here

x-post-- that WWOZ dj in the Muhammad obit shoulda included Earl Palmer in his list of legendary New Orleans drummers (even if some of his impact was from after he moved from the Crescent City to L.A.)

http://nicholaspayton.wordpress.com/2014/07/08/masters-of-funky-new-orleans-drumming-vol-1/

Jordan posted this on the 2014 jazz thread

starting to upload some brass band classics to youtube just because they're not on there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQELLw2A_nw

i thought some of these records were more or less out of print, but it looks like there are digital versions now on Amazon/iTunes/etc, which is good.

http://musicatthemint.org/keeping-time/

Some nice photos (online) from way back and from recently in this exhibit--Keeping Time: Extraordinary Images from Louisiana’s Musical Past at the Old U.S. Mint,

this thread is a roller coaster man. every time it gets updated it's either someone dying or some crazy amazing youtube.

also thx for the heads up, just bought d-boy on amazon mp3

nice. i'll bet i've listened to 'd-boy' more than any other record ever, and it never gets old.

for awhile i thought about doing some kind of oral history on it, talking to everyone involved while they're still around, but i just don't have the time for that sort of thing right now.

i would read that.

did anyone ever get around to that matt sakakeeny book? i like the idea but sometimes new orleans music people writing about new orleans music are can get http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTI4NTc1NDg4NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMjU4OTQyMQ@@._V1_SY317_CR4,0,214,317_AL_.jpg

pretend that image is the poster for _in too deep_ starring omar epps and ll cool j

lol. haven't read it, curious though.

I haven't read it yet either, but have been impressed with Sakakeeny writing I have seen

This just popped into my email:

It’s brass bands galore at our seventh annual Tremé Creole Gumbo Festival, taking place Nov. 8-9 in New Orleans’ Louis Armstrong Park. The Soul Rebels, the Stooges, the Hot 8, To Be Continued, the Pinettes, the Brass-A-Holics and the Tremé brass bands all will be there. So will New Orleans jazz/funk trumpet phenom Shamarr Allen. We’ll also present winners of our third annual Class Got Brass student brass band competition. And don’t forget the gumbo. Ten great local restaurants will showcase their interpretations of New Orleans’ signature dish. Plus, we’ll host our second annual Vegan Gumbo Competition. Don't miss a special performance by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra's new brass band (play that funky music, classical dudes!). All that plus a huge arts market and special activities for the kids. Admission is free.

Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra's new brass band (play that funky music, classical dudes!)

this should be hilarious

Just got around to listening to Rebirth Brass Band's 2014 album Move Your Body. Sounds good. Various guests are on it--James and Troy Andrews and a woman vocialist whose name I have sadly forgotten

http://www.offbeat.com/news/danny-barker-guitar-banjo-festival-kicks-off-across-new-orleans/?utm_source=WB+01+15+15&utm_campaign=WB+01+15+15&utm_medium=email

Another festival (and yes brass bands are kinda involved)

JazzFest lineup got announced too. Elton John and the Who with the Stooges Brass band together! OK, not really.

I don't dislike Elton or The Who, and have seen both perform, but the prospect of seeing them at Jazzfest would hold zero appeal for me. Thanks but no thanks: Pitbull, John Legend, Ed Sheeran.

But digging down the lineup: Sturgill Simpson, Vintage Trouble, Jimmie Vaughan, Taj Mahal... I could still have an excellent time. But not going, again.

I am with you on all that (seen Elton, the Who etc.), although seeing Springsteen there was exciting. I haven't studied the list, but one can't go wrong seeing brass bands and John Boutte and Irma Thomas (all of whom I guess are playing at some point)

Ponderosa Stomp is back this year, after a hiatus. Would like to go to that.

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2015/01/bo_dollis_longtime_big_chief_o.html

Theodore Emile "Bo" Dollis, the longtime Big Chief of the Wild Magnolias Mardi Gras Indians, died at his home in New Orleans on Jan. 20, 2015, his son confirmed. He was 71.

Born Jan. 14, 1944, Dollis first exercised his powerful voice in church. Though his family was reluctant to allow him to join the Indian gangs that paraded in their Central City neighborhood due to their reputation for violence, he sewed a suit in secrecy and masked for the first time with the Golden Arrows Mardi Gras Indians as a young teen. Soon after he joined the Wild Magnolias as Flag Boy and, by 1964, had risen to Big Chief.

Like the late Big Chief Tootie Montana, who was a mentor to him, Bo Dollis was one of a new generation of Mardi Gras Indians that turned away from violence, focusing instead on a contest of costuming and "prettiness." He was among the first to bring the culture and sound of the Indian culture to national prominence, recording the first commercial album of Mardi Gras Indian music, the single "Handa Wanda," in 1970 – the same year that he and Monk Boudreaux of the Golden Eagles Mardi Gras Indians appeared at the first New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. In 1974, along with his wife Laurita Dollis, keyboardist Willie Tee, Snooks Eagilin, percussionist Uganda Roberts and saxophonist Earl Turbinton, Dollis recorded the groundbreaking album "The Wild Magnolias," melding Indian chants with sizzling funk. Over the years, the Wild Magnolias would perform around the world.

In recent years, troubled by failing health, Dollis stepped down to the role of council chief of the Wild Magnolias, his son Gerard "Bo Jr." taking on the role of Big Chief and leader of the performing Wild Magnolias. In 2011, Bo Dollis received the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship.

Check back with nola.com/music for more details on this breaking story. Funeral arrangements are incomplete.

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2015/01/celebrating_big_chief_bo_dolli.html

I've been expecting this for quite a while, but damn. Wild Magnolias in the tiny upstairs room of Funky Butt on Rampart is definitely in my top musical experiences ever.

No BS Brass Band are really doing well for themselves, huh? not my thing at all, but they're tighter than most brass bands that have a drum kit, and at least they're doing their own thing and not attempting any New Orleans tunes.

Was curious about them, as I keep seeing the name around, but have never listened to 'em.

In New Orleans brass band news, Smithsonian Folkways has a new comp out with recent recordings from Liberty Brass, Treme, and Hot 8 (and more?)

http://www.folkways.si.edu/new-orleans-brass-bands/jazz-african-american/music/album/smithsonian

interesting. new recordings too, very trad-heavy, of course. doesn't sound super exciting from the clips, but still, cool.

i'm doing a clinic for a high school brass band this Sunday and i'm very much looking forward to it. mostly i want to give a context and get them excited about checking out the New Orleans bands.

oh and my band is in Chicago tonight at tomorrow, at the Green Mill.

FYI that Smithsonian site features a free download of Treme Brass Band playing “The Sheik of Araby.”

going to be in New Orleans the weekend of April 10th to play a gig and catch a second line. Digdown is playing at the Blue Nile that Friday.

French Quarter Fest going on then I think

yep. there are supposed to be thunderstorms all weekend. :( at least our show w/the Stooges is indoors, of course, i just hope the second line goes off.

Not a brass band question, but ...
I was streaming WWOZ's broadcast of the French Quarter Fest yesterday when Rory Danger & the Danger Dangers were playing what sounded like mostly covers. The female singer, who was screeching loudly and out of tune for the entire set, had me scratching my head. It was one of the worst things I've ever heard. I couldn't understand how they got the gig (never mind the radio spot) yet the crowd seemed to like them. What was I missing?

Aurora Nealand is her name, I guess, and apparently she has somewhat of a following in New Orleans. Maybe her vocal chords were just having a bad day.

She was on the Treme tv show it seems:

http://www.inside-treme-blog.com/home/2013/12/9/getting-to-know-aurora-nealand-and-her-alter-ego-rory-danger.html

I listened to her set with The Royal Roses last year, it was okay. That's trad jazz though, I haven't heard her rocking out. I do think some of those 'OZ broadcasts are miked weirdly sometimes, with the vocals too far forward.

Yeah, her rockabilly recordings sounds pretty decent. All I heard was over-the-top screaming yesterday.

And I watched a bit of this year's set on youtube. Not my thing.

Couldn't have asked for a better set at the Blue Nile. Great crowd, and my hero Derrick Tabb sat in a couple times.

Also saw Shannon Powell, Herlin Riley, and Gerald French, so that's all of my new Orleans drumkit idols. The only thing that sucked it's that the second line was cancelled on account of rain, even though it ended up not really raining during that time.

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2015/05/travis_trumpet_black_hill_risi.html

Travis 'Trumpet Black' Hill, rising New Orleans trumpeter, has died at 28

By Alison Fensterstock, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on May 04, 2015 at 3:05 PM, updated May 05, 2015 at 2:16 AM

(UPDATE: James Andrews will perform a tribute to his cousin at the Ooh Poo Pah Doo on Monday night, May 4.)

Travis "Trumpet Black" Hill, the fiery young trumpeter who played with the New Birth Brass Band, Corey Henry and the Treme Funktet and his own Heart Attacks band, died Monday (May 4) in Tokyo, according to a brief statement from the musician's publicist. He was 28.

Hill had just arrived in Japan, where he was scheduled to play a string of summer concerts, when he was rushed to the hospital. An infection that had set in after a minor dental procedure the previous week had spread quickly. According to the press release, Hill died at 2:15 p.m. Tokyo time on May 4.

Travis Hill, like his cousins Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, James Andrews and Glen David Andrews, was a grandson of the New Orleans R&B great Jessie Hill, a member of a sprawling dynasty of musicians. The same age as Trombone Shorty, Hill and his cousin grew up musically side-by-side, attending the Louis Armstrong Jazz Camp together; as a child and teenager, along with Glen David Andrews, Hill played in his cousin's first project, the Trombone Shorty Brass Band, as well as with groups like the New Birth and Lil Rascals Brass Bands.

His path diverged from his cousin's when, still in his teens, Trumpet Black was arrested for armed robbery. He spent nearly nine years in prison. After his release in 2011, Hill threw himself back into music with resolve and racked up successes quickly. He toured for two years as a member of Glen David Andrews' band and played with the Hot 8 Brass Band. More recently, he performed with Corey Henry and his Treme Funktet and picked up steam with his own band Trumpet Black and the Heart Attacks, with regular gigs at Vaughan's Lounge and the Ooh Poo Pah Doo Bar, his family's new lounge named for Jessie Hill's 1961 hit. He played the 2015 Jazz Fest with the New Breed Brass Band, as well as a heavy schedule of festival-week shows around New Orleans.

"Today my heart is heavy with the loss of my little cousin, more like my little brother," Glen David Andrews said Monday. "I love him, I will always love him and never let his memory fade away."

In late 2014, Hill had begun work on a new album with producer Eric Heigle. The seven tracks were nearly complete, Heigle said Monday afternoon; in fact, he and Hill had plans to work on final mixes remotely while the trumpeter was in Japan.

"Whatever it takes, I've cleared my schedule to finish it," Heigle said.

"It's a really great record," he said. "Everyone knows how great he was on the trumpet, but he was a really great singer as well."

The centerpiece of the project, Heigle said, was an original soul song whose title switched between "Trumpet Is My Life" and "Trumpets Not Guns," the latter being the name of the nonprofit with which Hill volunteered, playing benefit concerts and working with at-risk children.

"He used his past as a springboard," Heigle said, squeezing the energy of the time he'd lost in prison into electrifying music. Heigle recited some of the lyrics to "Trumpet Is My Life/ Trumpets Not Guns" into the phone Monday:

"This trumpet is my life, it's bout the only thing I do right, it's my ticket to the world," he said. "Spend time blowing my horn, you need it - it keeps me out the storm," he said.

Trombone Shorty and members of his Orleans Avenue band appear on the album, Heigle said, as well as June Yamagishi and James Andrews. It includes mostly Travis Hill originals, plus a cover of Earl King's "Street Parade."

"The band sounded great. The material is really strong," he said. "He was shining bright, and everyone around him felt it."

Lisa Grillot, the co-founder of Trumpets Not Guns, said that she thought of Hill as if he were one of her own eight children.

"He talked to the kids, straight from the hip," she said. "Like Glen David, they were guys who had been there. 'I did this, don't be so stupid.' He was able to speak from experience, and they listened to him. He was a voice of reason. "

"He was so proud that he was Jessie Hill's grandson," she said. "He was beyond proud of who he was. But at the same time he didn't define himself by who he was – Trombone Shorty's cousin, James' cousin, Jessie's grandson.

"He was the kid coming back from it all, who was going to take the world by storm."

Arrangements for Hill have not yet been announced.

Stay tuned to NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune for more on this developing story.

rip

it's so sad and random, especially given his story.

i heard a bootleg of an old brass band battle show where he was the only trumpet player for New Birth, he would have been 13 then.

Not exactly brass band, But Louisiana raised multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Jon Batiste and his now NY based band Stay Human will be Stephen Colbert's band in the fall when Colbert takes over for Letterman. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Batiste

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gwg8jwST1go

Satchmo SummerFest 2015 will celebrate 15 years of highlighting Louis Armstrong's contributions to American music from July 30 through August 2, 2015. But if you want to enjoy the music, you will have to pay $5 for admission this year-a first in the history of the formerly free festival.

From Offbeat mag email

“It’s frustrating,” he confirmed during an August phone call from Manhattan, “because you always have to sit down when you play the piano. I want to interact with the audience more, and that’s difficult due to the nature of the instrument. As much as New Orleans is a piano town, it’s also a trumpet town, and one thing the trumpeters can do is interact with people directly and get that energy back to them. I want to do that too.”

sorry dude, the melodica is not a great solution here. it's just not.

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2015/06/harold_battiste_dies.html

Harold Battiste, New Orleans saxophonist, composer and educator, dies at 83

Keith Spera, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Keith Spera, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on June 19, 2015 at 12:01 PM, updated June 19, 2015 at 10:42 PM

Harold Battiste Jr., the prolific saxophonist, pianist, producer, arranger and educator who helped shape music in New Orleans and beyond for more than six decades, died early Friday (June 19) after a lengthy illness. He was 83.

Mr. Battiste founded A.F.O. Records, the first New Orleans label owned by musicians, which released Barbara George's 1961 hit "I Know (You Don't Love Me No More)." He collaborated with Sam Cooke on two of the soul star's landmark singles. After moving to Los Angeles in the 1960s, he served as Sonny and Cher's musical director, and helped launch Dr. John's career.

In 1989, he returned to New Orleans and joined the jazz studies faculty at the University of New Orleans, mentoring and inspiring countless students.

"He has a glass-half-full approach to life," Ed Anderson, a former student who went on to become an assistant professor of music and director of Dillard University's Institute of Jazz Culture, said in 2009. "He was always encouraging. He motivated us to keep pushing forward, trying to get better. We all saw this old, wise man sitting there quietly. People love to be around Harold."

Mr. Battiste was born Oct. 28, 1931, in Uptown New Orleans. In the early 1940s, as he recalled in his 2010 memoir "Unfinished Blues," the family moved to the then brand-new Magnolia Housing Development. Their new apartment was close to the Dew Drop Inn on LaSalle Street, the famed nightclub and hotel. Already he sang in a junior choir at church, and had recently acquired his first clarinet.

"I could hear the music coming from there on my front porch and in my living room," he wrote in "Unfinished Blues." "It was the music of the Black stars of the day: lots of R&B, a little swing, a little jazz, a bit of jump. It was all about the rhythm, and I couldn't help but be drawn to that music because it spoke directly to my spirit."

Mr. Battiste graduated from Booker T. Washington High School and went on to earn a degree in music education from Dillard University in 1952.

In the 1950s, he performed in bands at the Dew Drop Inn and on Bourbon Street, sometimes alongside his friend Ellis Marsalis. He worked as a public school music teacher, as a New Orleans-based talent scout for Specialty Records -- he auditioned a very young Irma Thomas -- and as an arranger for recording sessions. He helped shape Sam Cooke's 1957 smash "You Send Me" and, years later, played piano on Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come," which was recorded at RCA Studios in Los Angeles in early 1964. He also contributed to Joe Jones' hit "You Talk Too Much" and Lee Dorsey's "Ya Ya."

In 1961, he launched A.F.O. ("All For One") Records out of a desire to give musicians, especially studio musicians who received only flat fees for playing on hit records, a bigger piece of the pie. He recruited five fellow African-American musicians for the A.F.O. board.: Saxophonist Alvin "Red" Tyler, bassist Peter "Chuck" Badie, drummer John Boudreaux, cornet player Melvin Lastie and guitarist Roy Montrell.

They played in the label's house band and produced records. They released an album called "Compendium" with vocalist Tami Lynn that was half jazz, half R&B, with the company's philosophy spelled out in the liner notes. In addition to Barbara George's million-seller, which hit No. 1 on the R&B charts, the label's releases included "Monkey Puzzle," the first album by Ellis Marsalis.

"If Louis Armstrong and his generation were to be compared to Adam, I would consider Mr. Battiste and his generation to be Moses," Anderson said in 2009. "They were the second wave. They changed the direction of jazz. They started the modern jazz movement in New Orleans.

"They took it from the traditional style that you'd hear at Preservation Hall and brought it into the modern vein by being influenced by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Fusing with that New Orleans, down-home sensibility, they created their own strain of jazz."

But A.F.O. could not replicate the early commercial success of "I Know." In a 1993 interview with The Times-Picayune, Mr. Battiste said an unscrupulous record distributor from New York lured away Barbara George, A.F.O.'s biggest star. In need of additional investors, income and opportunity, the label's principals moved to Los Angeles. But A.F.O. ran out of cash and dissolved.

"None of us, including myself, really understand the inner workings of American capitalism and the business," Mr. Battiste said in 1993, shortly after relaunching A.F.O. The music business "is just like any other business. And we're coming from a place of emotion and love, and that's not necessarily compatible with business and economics."

However, in Los Angeles, Mr. Battiste's versatile skill set -- he could write and arrange, as well as play multiple instruments -- led to eclectic collaborations. He worked with Sonny Bono and Cher for 15 years. He arranged, and contributed the distinctive soprano sax melody, to their 1965 hit "I Got You Babe." He served as the musical director for the duo's TV show, "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour," which launched in 1971. He later became musical director for Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis.

In the late 1960s, fellow New Orleans expatriate Mac Rebennack looked up Mr. Battiste in Los Angeles. Mr. Battiste got Rebennack work at recording sessions with producer Phil Spector and Sonny and Cher, among others. He helped Rebennack conceive of the Dr. John persona, and produced the first Dr. John album, "Gris-Gris," in 1968. The collection of hoodoo funk, featuring "I Walk on Gilded Splinters," found an audience among psychedelic rock fans. Mr. Battiste also produced and arranged the second Dr. John album, 1969's "Babylon."

He eventually took a job as director of jazz studies for the Coburn School of Music of the University of California at Los Angeles. When Ellis Marsalis became head of jazz studies at the University of New Orleans in 1989, Mr. Battiste returned to his hometown to help mold the next generation of the city's musicians.

In his later years, Mr. Battiste revived A.F.O. and sought to introduce and mentor young musicians in a project dubbed Harold Battiste Presents the Next Generation. He also dedicated himself to preserving and promoting the music of New Orleans' early modern jazz masters via "The Silverbook," a collection of compositions by the likes of James Black, Ed Blackwell, Ellis Marsalis, Nat Perrilliat, Red Tyler and others. His own compositions included the swinging, Count Basie-like "Alvietta Is Her Name" and the percussive "Marzique Dancing," both named for his daughters.

In 2009, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra performed a tribute concert of Mr. Battiste's works, orchestrated by Anderson. "Bravo Mr. Batt!" also featured the Dillard University Choir, pianist Henry Butler, percussionist Bill Summers and vocalists John Boutte and Wanda Rouzan, an indication of breadth of his catalog.

Among other honors, he received OffBeat Magazine's Best of the Beat Lifetime Achievement in Music Award in 2009.

Mr. Battiste suffered a stroke in 1993 that limited his ability to play saxophone. In recent years, his health declined steadily.

Funeral arrangements are incomplete.

Music writer Alison Fensterstock contributed to this story.