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

WWOZ is streaming some of French Quarter Fest

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/04/african-caribbean-artists-new-orleans-music-jazz

African and Caribbean musicians moving to New Orleans

https://www.offbeat.com/news/palm-court-jazz-cafe-announces-closure-after-35-years/

Trad jazz place Palm Court Jazz Cafe closing after 35 years due to rising expenses

The Mother-in-Law Lounge will open Tuesdays at 4 p.m. ahead of trumpeter Irvin Mayfield's weekly performance from 6 to 8:30 p.m. The club will then go dark until Saturdays, when doors open at 6 from Ruffins' weekly gig from 8 to 10 p.m.

Otherwise, the Mother-in-Law Lounge will only be active for private events.

https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/keith_spera/kermit-ruffins-cuts-back-treme-mother-in-law-lounge-hours/article_975dd374-1d1e-11ef-8164-877897fa52df.html

Damn, bad news for both of those venues.

For some reason I thought New Orleans band Cha Wa was kind of a jam band, but I got free tickets for their dc gig at the Library of Congress and they are a funk band with a bit of brass. The group includes 2 Black Masking Indians one who plays sax and does vocals, and the the other uses a tambourine and raps. The group also has a trumpet player, a trombonist, a male lead vocalist, two female backing vocalists, bassist, guitarist, keyboard/organ player, full trap drummer, and a background vocalist /percussionist. It was a fun gig.

It's kinda weird, they were started by the drummer (not a New Orleans guy) and used to have Joe from TBC on trombone and Thaddeus from Big 6/Stooges on tuba (who incidentally has been detained in Bermuda, it's really weird and apparently the sentencing hearing is today?). But those guys (and Chief Joseph, the frontman) split off and made their own band, The Rumble (I always forget the name) - https://therumbleband.com/. I don't know who's in Cha Wa now.

The printed program included some names- Cam Clark trumpet; Kaleb Summers trombone; Tajh Derosier sax and lead vocals; Joe Gelini drums & bandleader; Rik Fletcher keys ; Jay Sutton bass; Matt Kruft guitar plus a bunch of vocalists

the two leaders of Cha Wa, singer/percussionist Honey Banister and drummer Joe Gelini, have been involved with the Mardi Gras Indians for years. Honey Banister, Big Chief of the Creole Wild West tribe, combines both the Mardi Gras Indian tradition and the history of New Orleans rhythm and blues. His father, Irving Banister Sr., is an unsung hero of New Orleans music, having played with everyone from Danny White to Eddie Bo to Allen Toussaint. It is his guitar on “Sugar Boy” Crawford's original version of the song “Jock-A-Mo.” Honey’s mother, Big Queen Ledell Banister, is also a member of the Creole Wild West tribe - recognized as the oldest of all the tribes, dating back to the late 1800’s. She got Honey involved when he was 6, and he has been with them ever since, recently rising to the highest rank of the tribe.

Gelini moved to New Orleans after graduating from the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. “That's where I first heard of the Mardi Gras Indians,” he recalls, “I went to see Idris Muhammed (the New Orleans-born seminal jazz/funk drummer) play, and I asked if I could have a lesson. When we got together, he told me, 'Man, you got to understand what I'm playing is the Mardi Gras Indian tambourine parts when I'm playing the snare drum.”' After he moved to New Orleans, Joe saw the Mardi Gras Indians emerging on Mardi Gras day to march down Dryades Street and, he says, “I was hooked. It's a spiritual thing. It's more than the music.”

Heh, "involved" is doing very different work there.

Yep. Well, the free in DC Cha Wa gig was still fun. Cha Was played NYC a night later I think. Maybe the Rumble can get booked at those spots sometime.

Speaking of Mardi Gras Indians, I wanna see this Guardians of the Flame doc that was started by the late Jonathan Demme

https://www.guardiansoftheflamemovie.org/about#:~:text=Guardians%20of%20the%20Flame%20is,Demme%20and%20writer%20Daniel%20Wolff.

https://www.guardiansoftheflamemovie.org/

Seeing Instagram ads for The Rumble album and tour dates . They’re playing for free Saturday near me

There was a second line on Monday for Frankie Beverly

Kermit Ruffins posting on Instagram that he might shut down the Mother-in-law Lounge as he's losing money

Reading about Flagboy Giz latest album The Culture but haven't heard it yet myself

Oh no

Breaking -- Two people killed and nine wounded in two separate shootings at yesterday's massive Nine Times second line in the New Orleans's Ninth Ward, attended by thousands of people.

https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/crime/nopd-9-injured-at-least-1-killed-in-st-roch-shooting/289-2dc1c620-e618-42a4-8028-c589a7d649e7

Ugh, awful

Goddammit :(

https://www.nola.com/news/pableaux-johnson-dies/article_8dcbe608-dc49-11ef-93af-ebc56bc9752d.html

Oh no, photographer Pableaux Johnson known for his second line photos and his red beans and rice dinners for guests at his home died after collapsing at a second line while taking photos. My wife and I met him once years ago and he was such a nice and interesting person. He was just 59

In a public post Pableaux on Facebook I see more sad news

RIP BIG QUEEN: Back to NO to sad news of Queen Annette Tassin of the Black Mohawk Tribe passed away during the snowstorm. Beautiful soul with the warmest of smiles. Condolences to her family and friends, the Black Mohawks and the Black Masking Indian community.

Annette Tassin Black Mohawks Mardi Gras Indians Kevin Cheveyo Turner

The now late Pableaux is getting lots of praise online from the foodie community, second line fans, people who attended his his traveling red beans and rice dinners, and city of New Orleans fans

More obits for Pableaux

https://thelensnola.org/2025/01/28/losing-a-community-pillar/

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/28/dining/pableaux-johnson-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.s04.P0Xe.TSzdffU1wPhc&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

In 2016, he created two documentaries about the culture of Black masking Indians: “The Spirit Leads My Needle: The Big Chiefs of Carnival” and “It’s Your Glory: The Big Queens of Carnival.” Some of his images were exhibited at galleries and museums around the country.

Nightly second lines for people who have died, also called memorial processions, are usually reserved for club members, musicians or masking Indians. But one was arranged for Mr. Johnson on Monday, and more are to come this week.

Hot 8 Brass Band in DC February 20th . I have not been following their IG lately or anything else to see what they've been up to lately

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DEkkM95RrrN/?igsh=ZjEwdTBsemllNDN0

Dancing on top of a bus stop covering to brass band back in January

Aww man , I missed the Super Bowl pre-game show.

Is it on YouTube now? Somewhere else?

Axios :

You should also look for Harry Connick Jr. with trumpeter Leroy Jones and trombone player Freddie Lonzo, plus the Freedom Frequency Orchestra, the Southern University Marching Band, jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard, the Soul Rebels, The Original Pinettes (New Orleans' only all-female brass band), and the Spirit of New Orleans Gospel Choir.

Mardi Gras Indians will also figure prominently in the show, the NFL says, with local artist Queen Tahj at the helm. The tradition of creating spectacular beaded suits — a new one every year — comes from New Orleans' Black community. The tradition's origins are murky, but many believe it honors the unique relationship between Indigenous tribes who cared for escaped enslaved people in the city's early history.

Found clips of the Pinettes in their IG Story today but its expiring soon

It was on the NFL youtube channel this morning, but no longer for some reason. It was pretty silly, everyone got 4 - 8 bars, but better than not doing it. Also heard but didn't see Big Freedia, which was odd.

Found Southern U and Pinettes portion here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-xXblypsu8

well it was on http://www.youtube.com/@SmashTimeProductions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7hF95VbYu8

U Just got juiced Youtube page has most of it and was watchable there. Yea, I see that they didn't get a lot of time, but you're right , better than nothing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7hF95VbYu8

I saw on Katy R’s IG page that Youngblood passed. I think she’s referring to Henry Youngblood who was with Treme or sat in with them.

Here is an old blog post on him

https://iambricemiller.wordpress.com/2019/05/19/down-in-the-treme-mr-henry-youngblood/

I see on public facebook posts also that Henry Youngblood was known for singing “I Got a Big Fat Woman “ with the Treme Brass band and sometimes with other bands .

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJ6fDBrxBCi/?igsh=ZnF2dDRqajhiYnNm

I love the dancing in this second line ( actually guy is dancing on the sidewalk alongside the second line)

I keep seeing more cool dancing in second line reels

some from itchy_ videos whose reel I linked above.

Itchy is the big account for second line vids these days, it's great but focused on the dancing, I miss seeing more whole tunes and long-form videos with the bands. I've got a couple of youtube accounts that I follow that scratch the itch though.

Yep. I see that some of the videos emphasizing dancers have the term footwork in the title.

this youtube account focusses mostly on the dancing but shows the band at times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3_cmEt8Lhc

Well, 23 years after starting this thread I'm subbing with Rebirth for two nights in Chicago this weekend.

That’s awesome! Congrats

!!
Amazing!
Have fun...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzaxkEjpA1U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVE3fIuPs2s

Go Jordan , go Jordan

Thanks! Learned a lot (listening to a band for hundreds of hours is not *quite* the same thing as being in the middle of it) and if there's ever a next time it will be even better, but we did it and it was a beautiful experience.

Lots of Katrina 20 years later coverage

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DN9g9KJjK6y/?igsh=MWY0MTJhNnI4Nm1oYg==

What do people miss about pre- Katrina New Orleans reel

https://grist.org/extreme-weather/katrina-levees-new-orleans-army-corps-trump-landry/