New Orleans Brass Bands S/D

also youngblood brass band just released their new record, which is great, and are doing their first u.s. tour in like 6 years (i'm opening tonight in madison).

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/pax-volumi/id667879056
https://www.songkick.com/artists/248938-youngblood-brass-band/calendar (new orleans on 10/10)

Aw, too bad I'll never hear Kermit at Vaughan's. Made our first trip to NOLA in 2011 and went to Vaughan's on a Thursday night hoping to see him, only to be told that Kermit was out of town. Corey Henry, however, played a fantastic set and we had a great night. Went to Kermit's Speakeasy last year and that was one of the best nights of music ever. And his rabbit stew was the bomb! I'm hoping he'll have the Mother in Law Lounge up and running by the time we make our next trip.

mark your calendar for Saturday, October 26, as Red Bull gears up to host Street Kings II -- round two of the ultimate battle of the bands, once again under the bridge.

Anyone loving the new Preservation Hall Jazz Band album, That's It!, as much as me? Love their new direction. Gonna check them out in Fall River, Mass. next month. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsAfuRf9b6g

Haven't heard it yet. Does the My Morning Jacket guy make 'em do his/their songs?

not into that title track, it's like this old dirty dozen tune except without the tune:

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

i don't get much out of listening to the dirty dozen either, but i like that tune when other (more modern) bands play it.

I wonder if the album is on Spotify, or other tracks are on Youtube. Will check later.

the first album of original material in its 52-year history.

Here's another one I like from the new PHJB album. I'm a sucker for minor-key blues. Sorry for the hula-hoop; only video I could find of the studio version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVWlFJL5ANU

that's a neville bros song, right?

here's a Rebirth minor blues for you :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9kYFVkb_dA&feature=player_detailpage#t=2232

(whole album is up there! the next track, the big medley, is the best one on there, love it)

It's got a similar feel as the Neville's "Yellow Moon" but pretty sure it's a different tune. Supposedly the entire album are originals.

if I wanted to give one album in this style a listen, what would it be?

"...in this style" being New Orleans brass band in general? I've gotten a lot of listens out of D-Boy by New Birth Brass Band. I think Jordan has repped for this one as well? Good song selection and production.

yeah I would definitely suggest D-Boy or Hot Venom by Rebirth Brass Band. there are lots of other great records but you can't go wrong with those.

ok thanks! yes I just mean one album in New Orleans brass band style. when I'm in the city I love hearing this just walking through the streets, but I never figure out who's playing or whatever

And so the drill begins again: four 2013 Red Bull Street Kings finalists have been vetted and this Saturday afternoon (October 26), the To Be Continued (TBC) Brass Band will once again compete, this time against the Pinettes Brass Band, the New Breed Brass Band and the New Creation Brass Band. Here’s the catch: the Pinettes Brass Band is the first all-female brass band to compete in the Red Bull Street Kings competition

http://www.offbeat.com/2013/10/23/will-it-be-street-kings-or-street-queens-this-saturday/?utm_source=WB+10+24+13&utm_campaign=WB+10+24+13&utm_medium=email#

oh man. TBC are going to slay, that's not even fair.

Stumbled across this on youtube. I have the cassette somewhere, haven't thought about it in 20 years. I agree with the poster, I think this was the first pairing of rap and brass I ever heard, 1991.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2zb0mJ_MTE

oh interesting. is the rest of the LP a rap record? wonder who's on there...

As I recall a lot of rap, and maybe even a few R&B vocal kinda things? I remember this being my favorite cut on it. I'll see if I can dig it up. I found this in a Nevilles discography:

Cyril and Charles contribute to this effort by Neville offspring.
Included on the recording are: Jason (Jay-Lee) Neville, Aaron
(Fred) Neville Jr., Omari (Mari) Neville, Liryca (N'Zingo) Neville,
and Gaynielle (Queen Mother) Neville.

Deff Generation Horns: Greg Tardy (tenor saxophone), Mervin Campbell, Curtis Watson (trumpet), Emmanuel Stieb (trombone), Ricky Caesar (tuba).

cool, thanks! wow, greg tardy...he's a legit jazz dude, although i think he's from n.o. and i'm pretty sure he's on a Soul Rebels record.

He played with Paul Cebar for a while too.

didn't know that! but i do know paul.

We have a surprising winner!:

http://www.heraldonline.com/2013/10/28/5346789/the-original-pinettes-crowned.html

How did TBC not even make the final two bands?

i know, it's crazy. good for the pinettes, and maybe they put more into hyping the crowd and vocals, but no one is playing horns like TBC right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV8bp_LqWko&feature=player_detailpage#t=428

Folks in or visiting NO Nov. 6th might want to go to this:

a panel discussion on Jazz Funerals at Xavier University on Wednesday, November 6.
The discussion will be led by Dr. Michael White and will feature a live performance by the Liberty Brass Band.

With Bennie Pete from Hot 8; Gregory Stafford from Young Tuxedo Brass Band; 2 guys from Social Aid and Pleaure Clubs; plus knowledgable historian Jason Berry. At 7 pm and free

New Orleans musician, author and Tulane Assistant Prof Matt Sakakeeny on the Red Bull Street King and Queen event

http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2013/10/28/241401570/all-female-brass-band-buries-the-competition

Pinettes brought the show and hype it seems:

from above article

As the pallbearers carried the casket through the streets of New Orleans, a brass band led the procession with the slow dirge "Just a Closer Walk With Thee." But this was no jazz funeral, this was a brass band blowout, and painted on the coffin were the names of competing bands: New Breed, New Generation and To Be Continued. The Pinettes Brass Band had staged an elaborate ceremony to proclaim the death of their opponents, and when the music transitioned to the up-tempo march that signals the joyous end of the funeral, a dancer jumped out of the coffin ("She's alive!") and led the cavalcade through a tightly-packed crowd and into the judging area.
This grand entrance, followed by a fierce performance over three rounds, helped The Pinettes seal the win when the bacchanalia of brass came to a crashing close. So the big news in a city that surely enjoys the highest sousaphone-per-capita rate in the country is that the top prize was taken by the only all-female brass band (their name is a feminized version of the well-known Pinstripe band) in a patriarchal musical scene of about twenty bands with nary another female instrumentalist.

Dying to see "The Whole Gritty City." Anyone know what's going to happen with this film in terms of nationwide screenings or a DVD release? I live in a town in which the high school marching band is huge (although definitely not on the level of a typical NOLA high school band), and I think the kids and parents would love to see this.

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/gambit/new-orleans-marching-bands-and-the-whole-gritty-city/Content?oid=2264797

That does look great. I want it to come to my town too

I emailed them and just got this quick response:

Thanks for writing. The film won't be coming there real soon - because it will air on national television in February. Before the broadcast we can only do a handful of screenings in New Orleans and NYC. After the broadcast we will see what kind of theatrical or group screenings we can arrange in other cities. And then it will also get released in DVD and online.

Thanks! Very cool that it will be on TV. Will have my DVR ready to go.

Just a reminder to join us at Rump-A-Pum-Pum – A Drum Summit: Holiday Beats of the Gulf South, and kick off this special season with some 'groove carols.'
The concert will take place at Tulane University's Dixon Hall tomorrow (Saturday, Nov. 16) at 6:30 pm.

Master drummers Shannon Powell and Johnny Vidacovich (Astral Project) with Cuban percussionist Alexey Marti, Larry Sieberth, Roderick Paulin and Chris Severin will explore traditional carols infused with New Orleans and Cuban rhythms.

http://www.offbeat.com/2013/12/19/best-of-beat-awards-2013-voting/?utm_source=WB+12+19+13&utm_campaign=WB+12.19.13+&utm_medium=email#

Best Brass Band Album
•Brass-A-Holics: I Am a Bras-A-Holics
•Hot 8 Brass Band: Life and Times of the Hot 8 Brass Band
•Hot 8 Brass Band: Tombstone
•The Original Pinettes Brass Band: Finally
•Stooges Brass Band: Street Music

Best Brass Band
•Brass-A-Holics
•Hot 8 Brass Band
•The Original Pinettes Brass Band
•Rebirth Brass Band
•Soul Rebels Brass Band

Best Traditional Jazz Artist
•Leroy Jones
•Meschiya Lake & the Little Big Horns
•Kristina Morales & the Bayou Shufflers
•Preservation Hall Jazz Band
•Kermit Ruffins

Best Traditional Jazz Album
•Meschiya Lake & the Little Big Horns: Foolers’ Gold
•Tom McDermott: Bamboula
•Kristina Morales & the Bayou Shufflers: Louisiana Fairytale
•Preservation Hall Jazz Band: That’s It!
•Kermit Ruffins: We Partyin’ Traditional Style
•Miss Sophie Lee: Love Street Lullaby

Best Contemporary Jazz Artist
•Terence Blanchard
•Kidd Jordan
•Jason Marsalis
•Nicholas Payton
•James Westfall

Best Contemporary Jazz Album
•Jon Batiste and Stay Human: Social Music
•Terence Blanchard: Magnetic
•Gillet Singleton Duo: Ferdinand
•Kidd Jordan & Hamid Drake: A Night in November: Live in New Orleans
•Jason Marsalis: In a World of Mallets
•Nicholas Payton with the Sinfonieorchester Basel: Sketches of Spain

TBC getting robbed again, wtf?

Roll With It: Brass Bands in the Streets of New Orleans (Duke
University Press)

I stil haven't read this Matt Sakakeeny book (with artist Willie Burch). Matt's a New Orleans college prof and plays music in Los Poboycitos

There's a brass band piece in the new issue of Downbeat that's ehhh. The hook is the proliferation of brass band music from New Orleans outward, but the actual New Orleans bands are given short shrift. Great quotes from Youngblood BB but otherwise I think it does a disservice to the NOLA bands by putting some of these other bands on the same level (some more than others).

Not online I see.

I'm not familiar with writer Jennifer Odell, although I see she has a blog and says:

You’ll find more of my work (and lots from other New Orleans-obsessed writers) in a new book about New Orleans culture, “What Can’t Be Lost: 88 Stories and Traditions from the Sacred City,”

http://jenniferodell.wordpress.com/about/

http://www.downbeat.com/digitaledition/2014/DB1402/single_page_view/50.html

I see your point. You're right

Thx, maybe I'm being too hard on it given the thrust of the article, but I'm just an old brass band hater.

more importantly: http://instagram.com/p/jR-j-PSIqM/

x-post-- nah, you have reason to hate here

what is happening with the goofy hipstery brass band on the previous page

http://blogs.artinfo.com/blunotes/2014/01/glorious-noises-and-inglorious-ordinances/#more-3164

Check out the photo of the musicians showing up with instruments at the council meeting

writer Larry Blumenfeld:

It’s easy to frame a situation that pits city officials and a small but influential pocket of homeowners and businesspeople against scores of musicians, club owners and music lovers as a culture war: And to some extent there is one—maybe always has been one—going in in New Orleans. But like all exercises in policy as it affects people’s lives and livelihoods and most stories in general, the truth is more nuanced and complex than simply good against bad or right versus wrong.

I intend to write at greater length and with more depth and balance about this situation as it continues to play out. In the coming days, I plan to speak with the city council members and supporters of the original ordinance that I’d hoped to quote from the canceled meeting. According the a statement posted on the city council website Thursday evening, a new ordinance proposal will be put forth soon, with a meeting scheduled Jan. 27 for public comment. It’s unclear right now precisely who is working on this revision, when it will be made public and what it will say.

But only 1 councilperson was there

In more positive news:

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/blogofneworleans/archives/2014/01/20/barbecue-dancing-and-brass-open-kermits-treme-mother-in-law-lounge