New Orleans Brass Bands

[jeffcrom]

Hearing the Eureka Brass Band NO Funeral and Parade cd right now! Powerful stuff. I am thankful this music was recorded.

One of my desert island discs.

[jeffcrom]

I'm reading Mick Burns' Keeping the Beat on the Street: The New Orleans Brass Band Renaissance right now. Like Burns' book on the Olympia Brass Band, it's more or less an oral history - he lets the musicians tell the story. It came out in 2005, right before Katrina, and it really clarifies what was really going on in the brass band scene in New Orleans between the decline of the Eureka and the rise of the Rebirth.

Musician after musician emphasized how important Danny Barker's Fairview Church Brass Band was, as was its offshoot, Leroy Jones' Hurricane Brass Band. So tonight I just had to pull out the scarce-as-hens-teeth 1975 Lo An LP by the Hurricane. It took me years to track down a copy of this, and I couldn't even find a picture of the cover on the internet. All the musicians were around 20 years old, and the record is fresh, energetic, sloppy, and immature. Most of the tracks are from the traditional brass band repertoire - "Bourbon Street Parade," "Closer Walk," Joe Avery," etc. But there's a wildness and abandon about these young musicians' playing that reminds me of the 1958 Young Tuxedo album, but which also seems to be pushing toward something new. The drum intro to "Saints" is funkier than anything in brass band music up to that time, and the whole band sounds like they're on the verge of breaking through to a newer style.

Shortly after this, Tuba Fats joined the Olympia Brass Band, and inspired by his bass lines and by trumpeter Milton Batiste's ideas, the Olympia started playing R & B tunes like "I Got a Woman" and "Mardi Gras in New Orleans." The real stylistic change hinted at by the Hurricanes didn't come to fruition until five years later, though, when the Dirty Dozen Brass Band was formed. But Danny's Fairview band and the Hurricane Brass Band are the groups that brought brass band music to a new generation of New Orleanians.

I feel compelled to list the personnel of the Hurricane album. Most of them went on to become well-known in New Orleans music. A few were already in the union and couldn't appear under their real names.

Trumpets - Leroy Jones, Gregory Davis (later of the Dirty Dozen), Gregg Stafford (as Gregory Vaughan)

Trombones - Lucien Barbarin, Michael Johnson

Clarinet - Joseph Torregano (as Joseph Charles)

Alto sax - Darryl Adams

Tenor sax - Henry Freeman

Tuba - Anthony Lacen (Tuba Fats)

Snare drum - Raymond Johnson, Jr.

Bass drum - Charles Barbarin

Right now I'm on the last track, "Olympia Special." This band must have driven the second-liners out of their minds - there's so much energy here. If you can find a copy of the Lo An album, grab it!

[jeffcrom]

Today I spun the Algiers Brass Band's Lord, Lord, Lord (Sound of New Orleans, 1992) for the first time in a while. The Algiers is more or less a neighborhood brass band in Algiers (the section of New Orleans directly across the river from the French Quarter), although I've heard them in the Quarter a few times. The band is kind of rough and ready - they play like amateurs, but in a good way. The Algiers sticks mostly to the traditional repertoire, although they venture into different territory on a few tunes, like the Meters' "Hey Pocky Way." And somebody (uncredited) grabs a guitar while they do Z.Z. Hill's "Down Home Blues" - I'll bet the folks in Algiers ate that one up. There is one truly awful track - "Wonderful World," with perhaps the worst fake-Louis Armstrong vocal I've ever heard.

The Algiers BB is still around; I last heard them about three or four years ago, and they sounded pretty much the same. Lord, Lord, Lord is a good example of a stictly local brass band playing for the people.

[jeffcrom]

Today I revisited this self-produced 1996 album:

Paulin Brothers Jazz Band - The Tradition Continues.

It reminded me of how much individuality and variation there is among New Orleans brass bands. Despite the name of the band, it's a brass band. (They call themselves the Paulin Brothers Brass Band these days.) The core of the band is formed by five sons of the legendary trumpeter and brass band leader Doc Paulin, whose musical career stretched from the 1920's to shortly before Katrina. He appears on several tracks of this CD, and I really enjoyed his vocals and rough trumpet playing.

The Paulin Brothers play traditional New Orleans and swing tunes, for the most part (there is one funk tune), but they don't sound like any other brass band. The main reason for this is the three-part saxophone section. (There are rarely more than two saxes in a New Orleans brass band.) The saxes had obviously rehearsed a lot, and worked out some parts in rich harmony, beyond the harmonic simplicity of many brass bands. The band has the spirit and abandon typical of the best N.O. brass bands, but the saxes give the music a sheen that sets this band apart.

It's a cool album (apart from one pretty dreadful vocal by Doc's daughter), but it seems to be out of print and hard to find. I did see Roderick Paulin selling CDr copies in Jackson Square a year and a half ago.

Edited December 3, 2011 by jeffcrom

[jazzypaul]

ok, not a NO brass band, but a band that definitely came from that tradition and is building upon it: Youngblood Brass Band out of (wait for it) Madison, WI.

I love, Love, LOVE these guys. Came across one of their discs for dirt cheap when I lived dangerously close to Dusty Groove, saw them play around the corner at the Empty Bottle and at a few street festivals in Chicago, and they just threw it down HARD. Their snare drummer was also a pretty damn good rapper, to boot. And at the end of the night, they gave shout outs to every single New Orleans brass band you could think of. They know their roots and they're doing something with them.

Youngblood Brass Band

[jeffcrom]

After midnight, and listening to Straight From the 6th Ward on the Tipitina's label. From my flying visit to New Orleans last month, I got the impression that it's back in print - I saw it in the racks at the Louisiana Music Factory, so you should be able to order it from them. If I'm mistaken about that, there some cheap-ish copies available from Amazon vendors.

This album is ten years old now, but is still a great representation of current New Orleans brass band music. There are two tracks each by four great established bands - plus an all-star bonus. This isn't an anthology of previously-issued recordings; all the tracks were recorded for this album. The bands are:

Lil Rascals - This is trombonist Corey Henry's band, equally adept at traditional tunes and funk. (They play only the latter here.) Corey's great, and the tuba player is Jeffrey Hills, who I would rate only after Matt Perrine and Kirk Joseph in the pantheon of New Orleans tubists.

Rebirth - The best brass band in the city - now, 10 years ago, and 20 years ago. The incredible Derek Shezbie is on lead trumpet; he has been with the Rebirth off and on since I saw him playing with the band in 1990, when he was 15 or so.

Treme - The most genial, fun, traditional, and "down home" of the groups here. The late, much-beloved Uncle Lionel Batiste was their bass drummer; they have carried on since his death last year. They still do funerals and second-line parades, but when they play "sit-down" gigs, they often use a guitar or banjo. Carl LeBlanc, who has played guitar with Sun Ra and banjo with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, is in the band here.

New Birth - Only a step or two behind the Rebirth. Trombone Shorty was playing trumpet in this version of the band.

But the highlights of this excellent album are the two tracks by the 6th Ward All Stars, consisting of some of the best musicians from all of the above bands. Trombone Shorty and Derek Shezbie form the downright scary trumpet section, and both Jeffrey Hills and Philip Frazier, the leader of the Rebirth, are on tuba. Kermit Ruffins shows up to sing "Didn't He Ramble." It's all pretty awesome.

Ten years old, but still one of the great contemporary brass band albums.

Edited July 30, 2013 by jeffcrom

[AllenLowe]

I like that sound - but my main problem is that it has become so homogenized. There just seem to be 50 bands who play it and play it well. Am I imagining this?

[jeffcrom]

I like that sound - but my main problem is that it has become so homogenized. There just seem to be 50 bands who play it and play it well. Am I imagining this?

To an extent, you're right. There are probably 30 or so brass bands in the city playing in a similar, Rebirth-derived style. They vary in quality, and the better ones have enough individuality to keep me interested.

[jeffcrom]

Today I spun my newest brass band CD, the latest (2012) release by the To Be Continued Brass Band. This young band continues to really impress me - this is the third album by them I've heard. The three trumpets and three trombones make for a really fat sound, and they're strong players. Most of the tracks have guests, including New Orleans trumpeters Terrell Baptiste and Shamarr Allen and rapper Bossman Superior. I don't remember who said, earlier in the thread, that clarinetist Michael White ruined every album he plays on, but whoever it was is going to hate this one - Dr. White guests on three tracks. I kind of like his playing. On the negative side, I got tired of the self-promoting vocals - stop yelling "TBC" already!

And this band still seems a little unreal to me, because I've never seen them live. I don't know how often they play New Orleans clubs, but I've never come across them on my visits.

Edited July 31, 2013 by jeffcrom

[.:.impossible]

Hard to believe a brass band has made the Billboard charts, much less cracked the top twenty.

http://www.shorefire.com/index.php?a=pressrelease&o=6698

[jeffcrom]

Tonight I'm spinning New Birth Family, by the New Birth Brass Band. They've put out a couple of albums since this 2004 offering, but they haven't topped this one, in my opinion. The New Birth is only a step or two behind the Rebirth, and based on this album (and a gig I heard at the Maple Leaf in New Orleans), they are almost the equal of the great Rebirth. This album has Trombone Shorty on trumpet, his cousin Glen David Andrews on trombone and the great vocals, and the veteran Darryl Adams on alto sax. The percussion team of Kerry Hunter on snare and Tanio Hingle on bass is frighteningly intense. (They are also the drummers of the New Orleans Nightcrawlers brass band.) This album's version of "Over In the Gloryland" might just be my favorite version of this NOLA brass band standard. The New Birth plays the first half of the first chorus with no drums and no tuba. The drums come in in the second half of the chorus, but the tuba doesn't enter until the second chorus. By that time, the tension has become almost overwhelming, which makes the feeling of release at the beginning of the second chorus incredibly satisfying.

Edited November 16, 2013 by jeffcrom

[jeffcrom]

I've only been in New Orleans 26 hours, but so far:

A wedding reception second line with the Panorama Brass Band. That's the best tuba player on the planet, Matt Perrine.

The Family Ties Social Aid and Pleasure Club annual second line parade in Treme.

I posted the above in the Live Shows thread, but thought that it also belonged here, with some amplification.

The Panorama Brass Band, like its indoor counterpart, the Panorama Jazz Band, plays klezmer, Caribbean tunes, and Balkan music in addition to traditional and modern New Orleans brass band standards. The leader, clarinetist Ben Schenck, is a friend, and had tipped me off to this moving wedding procession in the Bywater neighborhood. The Panorama is the only brass band in the city that uses alto and baritone horns, like the early-20th-century bands used - although the Panorama boys use the Eastern European versions of those instruments, like the Balkan brass bands use. You can see an alto and baritone horns to the right in the first picture.

The Panorama have a CD out, 17 Days, which I discussed in post #47 of this thread. They also have four tracks on the Panorama Jazz Band's second CD, Panoramaland, and two tracks on the PJB's third CD, Come Out Swingin'.

Fall through spring is second-line season in New Orleans - just about every Sunday afternoon a social club has a second-line parade. Last week I went to my first one - the Family Ties Social Aid and Pleasure Club second line through the Treme. It was scheduled for four hours, but me and my buddies just joined up for an hour. It was kind of overwhelming - thousands of folks following the sharply-dressed club members and motley-looking pickup band through the streets. The second-liners danced when they felt like it, and many of them played along with drumsticks on bottles.

I've seen/heard New Orleans brass band music in street parades before, but these two experiences, along with Frog Joseph's funeral in 2004, really brought this music into focus as a functional, community-building force. In both cases, the music was funky and transcendent at the same time.

[Thomas Jackson]

Down in NOLA for Jazzfest this year got my Brass Band thang on. Dug Rebirth at The Louisiana Music Factory, The Soul Rebels at Los Bon Tiemps and The Stoogies at the fest. Also check out The Hypnotic Brass Band from Chi-Town and The No BS Brass Band out of Richmond,VA. word

[jeffcrom]

Speaking of the Stooges....

I wanted to mention this album, released about a year ago, I think. Street Music might interest those into vinyl and New Orleans brass bands. It's a vinyl-only release - no CD and no download. The Stooges BB are a funk/R & B-oriented group, and are hot and excellent here - the music and the pressing sound good. I doubt you'll be able to find it anywhere but the Louisiana Music Factory - here's the link.

[jeffcrom]

This album, Through the Streets of the City: New Orleans Brass Bands (Smithsonian Folkways) was released a few months ago, but I just picked it up today. Although it's not perfect, I still recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good overview of New Orleans brass band music today. There are three bands represented: Michael White's Liberty Brass Band gets six tracks, the Treme BB has five, and the Hot 8 gets four.

The Hot 8 is one of the best bands in the city today, and their tracks are hot (duh!) and funky. The Treme is a smaller band, as they usually are in "real life." their music is poised somewhere between the funk of the Hot 8 and the traditionalism of the Liberty. I like them a lot - they're totally unpretentious: just a fun, genial neighborhood brass band. Bruce Brackman is on clarinet, and he's one of New Orleans' hidden treasures.

Which brings us to Dr. White's Liberty BB. They are overtly traditional, and are, well, a little on the polite and polished side. If you accept that, they are good, if maybe not really exciting. The trumpet section (Wendell Brunious, Gregg Stafford, and Dwayne Burns), is what must be the best traditional brass band trumpet section in the city. The Liberty's version of "Panama" slows down painfully - if it was my band, I wouldn't have allowed this recording to be released. But otherwise, they do a good enough job of demonstrating the traditional side of the city's brass band spectrum.

[jeffcrom]

I'm spinning the Olympia BB (their first session, from 1962), the Eureka BB, and the Stooges BB on vinyl, thinking about my upcoming New Orleans trip. I'll be there in three weeks, and since it's second line season for the social aid and pleasure clubs, I thought I'd search for the second line schedule. It looks like I'll be second-lining the Prince of Wales Social Aid and Pleasure Club parade uptown in the Irish Channel on October 11.

But while I was looking, I came across a listing informing us that the Young Men Olympians Benevolent Association will have their 131st annual second-line parade this coming Sunday, September 27.

Think about that. Every year since 1884. That's a beautiful thing.

[jcam_44]

Love that Stooges vinyl. Always wish I have picked up the Jackson Square Brass Band cd when I was there 2 years ago. Every time I've seen them since they haven't had it. 

[jeffcrom]

Late at night, I'm listening to what might be the New Orleans brass band album I'd take to a desert island (although I'd hate to have to make that choice), New Orleans Funeral and Parade by the Eureka Brass Band. The music once again brought me back to a point I made in my first posts in this thread, six years ago. This music is not Jazz with a capital "J," it's New Orleans brass band music, with its own styles, conventions and musical heroes. Several of these musicians, like Percy Humphrey, George Lewis, and Emanuel Paul, were accomplished jazz musicians, but they play rather differently here. And others, like the trombone team of Albert Warner and Charles "Sunny" Henry, were strictly brass band musicians - and they developed an amazing rapport, as, a few years later, did Warner and Sunny Henry's replacement, Oscar "Chicken" Henry (no relation). Warner played an a few jazz recording sessions, such as Bunk Johnson's second session, but they mostly showed how inadequate he was as a jazz player. But he knew just what to do in a brass band, and knew how to interact with his trombone partner.

Then and now, New Orleans brass band music is related to, but not quite the same thing as jazz. But it's amazing music.

Pianist Alton Purnell (of the George Lewis band) was on hand during this recording session as the representative of the musicians' union, and after "Garland of Flowers" was recorded, said to the producer, "That's symphony music!"

[paul secor]

8 hours ago, jeffcrom said:

Late at night, I'm listening to what might be the New Orleans brass band album I'd take to a desert island (although I'd hate to have to make that choice), New Orleans Funeral and Parade by the Eureka Brass Band. The music once again brought me back to a point I made in my first posts in this thread, six years ago. This music is not Jazz with a capital "J," it's New Orleans brass band music, with its own styles, conventions and musical heroes. Several of these musicians, like Percy Humphrey, George Lewis, and Emanuel Paul, were accomplished jazz musicians, but they play rather differently here. And others, like the trombone team of Albert Warner and Charles "Sunny" Henry, were strictly brass band musicians - and they developed an amazing rapport, as, a few years later, did Warner and Sunny Henry's replacement, Oscar "Chicken" Henry (no relation). Warner played an a few jazz recording sessions, such as Bunk Johnson's second session, but they mostly showed how inadequate he was as a jazz player. But he knew just what to do in a brass band, and knew how to interact with his trombone partner.

Then and now, New Orleans brass band music is related to, but not quite the same thing as jazz. But it's amazing music.

Pianist Alton Purnell (of the George Lewis band) was on hand during this recording session as the representative of the musicians' union, and after "Garland of Flowers" was recorded, said to the producer, "That's symphony music!"

There aren't many recordings I'm interested in picking up these days - my collecting has wound down and I'm getting to know my collection better - but this is definitely one that I do want to get.

[danasgoodstuff]

On 9/25/2015 at 7:44 PM, jeffcrom said:

I'm spinning the Olympia BB (their first session, from 1962), the Eureka BB, and the Stooges BB on vinyl, thinking about my upcoming New Orleans trip. I'll be there in three weeks, and since it's second line season for the social aid and pleasure clubs, I thought I'd search for the second line schedule. It looks like I'll be second-lining the Prince of Wales Social Aid and Pleasure Club parade uptown in the Irish Channel on October 11.

But while I was looking, I came across a listing informing us that the Young Men Olympians Benevolent Association will have their 131st annual second-line parade this coming Sunday, September 27.

Think about that. Every year since 1884. That's a beautiful thing.

That's amazing - 131 straight years!

[jeffcrom]

I just had my second 22-hours-in-New Orleans-for-a-gig experience in two years. Along the way, we managed to hear three brass bands on Tuesday night.

The Young Fellaz BB was playing for tips on Frenchmen Street. I don't love the one CD I have by them, but they were fun and exciting in person.

The Treme BB was playing a d.b.a. - a larger group than they have brought to that gig in the past. There were two (later three) trumpets, a trombone, and two saxes (Roger Lewis of the Fats Domino band and the Dirty Dozen was one) in the front line. My buddy Bill took his mouthpiece and sat in on sousaphone at the invitation of Jon Gross, Treme's current tuba man. They were a little "touristly," but good.

We ended the evening with Rebirth's regular Tuesday night gig at the Maple Leaf. It was just as intense as the first time I heard them there 25 years ago. The two trombones on opposite sides of the stage, Derek Shezbie in the middle of the trumpet section, the Frazier brothers in the back on bass drum and sousaphone, and all that brass hitting you in the face - for 75 minutes, all was right with the world.

Then I slept for five hours and drove for nine hours.

And I see that I never followed up on a post from three years ago. My wife Karen and I second-lined with the Prince of Wales Social Aid and Pleasure Club back in October, 2015. I tried to prepare her for the experience, explaining that the streets would be jammed with a thousand or so of her closest friends, but the crush of the crowd overwhelmed her for a few minutes. Then she got into the spirit of it, and danced a couple of miles to the TCB (To Be Continued) Brass Band. Later she said it was a check on her bucket list.

 

Edited October 12, 2018 by jeffcrom