New Orleans Brass Bands S/D

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).

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

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.

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)?

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.

or was it not so brass band-y?

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

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.

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.

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. :>

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

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).

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.

I am also interested in Jordan's mix.

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.

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

I think one was called Yarl River Blues Band.

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

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.

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

Brass Fest happening now:
https://www.facebook.com/saveourbrassfoundation/videos/263377655319746

Thanks, send some $ too

I sent some I mean

Updated link, hot set now 🔥: https://www.facebook.com/saveourbrassfoundation/
https://www.facebook.com/saveourbrassfoundation/videos/461030215018700

Sporty’s Brass Band

https://secondlines.com/

Big 6 strong too, of course

Mama Digdown getting love from the emcee for their smokin performances. Nice video ( plus predictable calls to show me your cheese Wisconsin)

I hadn't seen the video until it aired, I got emo seeing all that footage from last year.

Loved the Sporty's and Big 6 sets, I was dancing in my kitchen all day.

(the less said about some of the others, the better, lol)

Agree

NBC tv news story tonight: New Orleans Black community reeling from Covid

17 members of the Zulus died during the pandemic . So many Black New Orleans Covid deaths

https://www.offbeat.com/news/pbs-frontline-series-focuses-on-new-orleans-funeral-traditions-impacted-by-covid

Dvr’ing that, .

In more upbeat news , saw a video clip on twitter of Big 6 playing on a porch in the evening sounding great. An Offbeat mag tweet

https://www.nola.com/news/article_2015a954-90bd-11eb-819c-d363b523d93e.html

RIP

Keelian Boyd Sr., an artist and celebrated big chief of the Young Maasai Hunters, died Sunday of heart failure at the Ochsner Health Center in Chalmette. He was 37.

Boyd, a crane operator at Domino Sugar in Arabi, launched the Young Maasai Hunters tribe in 2018, emerging on Mardi Gras morning in a stunning purple suit with two perfectly suspended wings extending from the side of his crown. Before that he had been mostly behind the scenes in the Black masking Indian culture, also known as Mardi Gras Indians, as a "hook-up man," basically an advisor called in at clutch moments to help other Indians finish their suits

21st Century Brass Band released an album and it's hard:
https://open.spotify.com/album/3AmfQNsRiPdzMCLrrdEC6Z?si=5ygm98xDSlaqMHMnUrhEaQ

Also 'I Wanna Go Back Outside' must be the first brass band tune about the pandemic

"I Wanna Go Back Outside" by 21st Century Brass sounds good. Will check out the rest.

Not always crazy about Offbeat Magazine, but sometimes it has provided good coverage. They have a go fund me going

We are closing our Frenchmen Street office, where we've been located since 1998, because we can no longer afford the rent in this location. We are having to get rid of decades' worth of OffBeat Magazine copies, photos, posters, books and more so we can move to a smaller location within the New Orleans Jazz Museum at 400 Esplanade Avenue (located in the Old U.S. Mint). We need your help more than ever!

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-offbeat-magazine

offbeat is brutally corny but i love the tireless/guileless energy that leads them to run like 1000 word reviews of some papa grows funk cd called "red beans and fais do do: live on dumaine st"

i will probably give them some money just for providing me free reading material for bus and streetcar rides for 15 years

In my early days of going to Jazzfest, pre-internet, you didn't know stages and times for acts until you hit town and picked up an Offbeat, so for providing me those few moments of joyous scribbling and highlighting they will always be a great memory.

WWOZ is doing a jazz fest in place through the weekend

More sad news . Via a Ned Sublette email:

Terry Gibson, Jr., trumpeter with Sporty's Brass Band in New Orleans, died suddenly on the night of April 12 at the age of 29.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/terry-gibson-jr-home-going

https://www.offbeat.com/news/young-trumpeter-terry-gibson-jr-passes-awayterry-gibson-1991-2021/

Obit names all the bands Gibson was in , talks about his European gigs, and a brief mention of his backing Beyonce on a trip she made to New Orleans

https://www.thedailybeast.com/a-new-doc-shines-a-loving-light-on-the-new-orleans-jazz-funeral?fbclid=IwAR1FFRon3dUOuB8JkP_St4254YdxldlM2psCAnC5QmWMbm26_GsNHcOuQ0U

article by someone unfamiliar with brass bands on new movie doc by writer Jason Berry on New Orleans and brass called City of a Million Dreams . I heard Berry speak once. Impressive guy

In 2018 Berry released a book with that title. Now comes the movie doc

Satchmo SummerFest from July 31 to August 1.

Jazzfest October 8 to 17th

https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/keith_spera/article_dd165cba-cd85-11eb-af26-23891ed8d5f9.html

French Quarter Fest in October will be Thursday through Saturday as city of New Orleans said it would be too hard to provide police for a Sunday FQF day and a Saints game

First official post-pandemic second line:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF0zLo9BEaQ

Yeah, I guess.

So the fall JazzFest has been announced and eh whatever.

https://www.hnoc.org/publications/books/dancing-streets

Judy Cooper book on New Orleans social clubs and second lines

DANCING IN THE STREETS
SOCIAL AID AND PLEASURE CLUBS OF NEW ORLEANS

Judy Cooper, with essays by Rachel Carrico, Freddi Williams Evans, Charles “Action” Jackson, Matt Sakakeeny, and Michael G. White

2021 Jazzfest cancelled due to Delta variant Covid

I'm scheduled to be there then, playing a wedding and some other gigs. We will see?

Sorry. Was thinking many folks had already bought plane tickets, made reservations, etc but the unvaccinated were not thinking about that

The cancellation of Jazz Fest is actually the second major blow of the past week; two days ago, we lost Charles “Action” Jackson, WWOZ radio host and one of the staunchest advocates and stewards of NOLA brass band and second line culture. Check out “Takin It to the Streets” on ‘OZ’s website if you’re not familiar with him, and spread the word about him if you are. He will be greatly missed. R.I.P.

I'm gonna miss "It's your BOY!"

RIP, it changed the game when I could actually look online and see second line dates & routes, instead of having to text somebody in the band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9CSacbXHeg

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wwoz/albums/72157719667600746/

Photos from a pop up second line for Action Jackson

https://prog.tsharp.xyz/en/riiff/39/film/6926/City-of-a-Million-Dreams

New Orleans movie showing for free online via this fest only through August 18

https://www.thedailybeast.com/congo-square-under-siege-the-latest-threat-to-black-cultures-ground-zero-in-new-orleans?fbclid=IwAR2bczt5xagrpPxdJ_Yzr0_lFVH9TuDuZwnCjbFnRvnhuv1LLcSc3OnKsZQ

Article about Congo Square and the Jason Berry movie doc City of a Million Dreams

Good luck New Orleans

Going to see Rebirth in Rhode Island on Wednesday. They'll be playing with heavy hearts, I'm sure.

Bennie Pete, founder and leader of the Hot 8 Brass Band, has passed. R.I.P.

Oh no!

Hasn’t been officially reported yet AFAIK but a tuba-playing friend told me, and the news is going around facebook.

I heard as well, RIP. It hasn't hit me yet but he was one of the kindest people I've ever met, just a big-hearted mountain.

Seeing it on twitter too. Googling I see he has had health issues since 2014. Had seizures then . So sad . In his 40s

https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/music/article_49b3a9ba-2f5f-5bfa-b1ed-6712c1638d09.html

Big 6 Brass band is struggling due to Hurricane Ida. Asking for $ to their Cash App on Instagram

https://www.wwoz.org/blog/675736

Uncle Lionel’s brother, musician Norman Baptiste died back in August I see

Norman Batiste

We're doing a fundraiser on Friday, will be distributing proceeds to our New Orleans brass band community: https://www.facebook.com/events/277709660554623

Same for everything from the Mama Digdown's and Youngblood Brass Band bandcamp pages.

Found this incredible archival footage of Hot 8 from 1996, almost 2 hours long, apparently digitized from Bennie Pete's VHS copy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OprSGzqvpc8

Wow...