Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue with The Soul Rebels

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue

New Orleans native Trombone Shorty is the bandleader and frontman of Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, a hard-edged funk band that employs hip-hop beats, rock dynamics and improvisation in a jazz tradition.  Together, Trombone Shorty and his band have toured the U.S. and Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan, Russia and Brazil. Trombone Shorty began his career as a bandleader at the tender age of six, and toured internationally for the first time at age 12 before joining Lenny Kravitz’ horn section at the age of 19 for a 105-date world tour in 2005-2006

His third outing for Verve Records, “Say That To Say This,” co-produced by Shorty and R&B titan Raphael Saadiq, was released in September 2013. In 2010, Trombone Shorty released the Grammy-nominated “Backatown,” followed in 2011 by “For True,” which topped Billboard Magazine’s Contemporary Jazz Chart for 12 weeks.

In January 2014 Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue performed on the 56th Annual Grammy Awards with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Mary Lambert, Madonna and Queen Latifah, and the band has made guest appearances on Conan, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Arsenio, and Austin City Limits. Shorty also played himself in a recurring role on the hit HBO series “Treme” In 2012, he performed at the White House in honor of Black History Month with music royalty such as B.B. King, Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck, Booker T. Jones, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, and Gary Clark Jr. Later that same year he received the President’s Medal from Tulane University in recognition of his charitable work with his own Trombone Shorty Foundation.

Good things continue to happen for Trombone Shorty, thanks to his virtuosity, his dedication, and his ability to move people. That he pursues his passion with such humility and unpretentiousness makes his still-unfolding story as compelling as the music he’s making along the way.

The Soul Rebels

The New Orleans group the Soul Rebels, which combines elements of hip-hop with a traditional brass band sound, was formed by former drum majors from the marching bands of Southern, Grambling, and Texas Southern University. Lumar LeBlanc (snare drum), Derrick Moss (bass drum), and Damion Francois (tuba) first played together as Young Olympia, the junior division of Milton Batiste’s Olympia Brass Band. Joining Tannon Williams (trumpet), Winston Turner (trombone), and Marcus Hubbard (trumpet), they began playing on their own in 1991. (In addition to the six permanent members, the group was frequently augmented by guests Will Terry on tenor sax, DJ Ike Turna on turntables, Mike Woods on percussion, and Thaddeus Clark on electric piano.) In 1993, when they shared a stage with the Neville Brothers, Cyril Neville christened them, saying, “Hey, you’re a brass band, but y’all got funk and soul. Y’all are like soul rebels.”
The Soul Rebels released their first album, Let Your Mind Be Free, on Mardi Gras Records in 1994. No More Parades followed on Tuff City in 1998. (More Jams from No More Parades was a live remix of the album for DJs made without the band’s approval or input.) Rebelution, their third album, followed in February 2005 on Barn Burner Music. The hardworking band (averaging about 250 shows per year) suffered an understandable setback that year when Hurricane Katrina devastated their hometown. Though its members were scattered across the Gulf region, they still managed not only to get back together to play shows from time to time, but also to release an album, 2006’s Urban Legend. Following local releases like No Place Like Home: Live in New Orleans, which appeared in 2009, the band saw an increase in visibility, appearing in an episode of the New Orleans-themed HBO original series Treme, as well as the television broadcast of the parade before the 2010 Super Bowl (the year the Saints won the NFL championship game). Eventually, the Soul Rebels signed on with Rounder Records, which released their 2012 album, Unlock Your Mind.

The Soul Rebels

2014 was an explosive year for THE SOUL REBELS riding high from touring four continents including Europe, Australia for the second year, debuting in China, selling out shows in New York City, collaborating with artists spanning from Joey Bada$$, Big Freedia, Lotus and The String Cheese Incident to sharing stages with Kanye West, The Allman Brothers Band, Gary Clarke Jr., John Mayer, Jack White, Dave Mathews and Disclosure. Closing out the year, The Soul Rebels toured with Trombone Shorty and returned home to record the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival’s official soundtrack, quoted by the iconic festival as “Soul Rebels, the soundtrack of Jazz Fest 2015”.

How do you follow up a year like that? As only The Soul Rebels can, with a jam packed plan for 2015 featuring touring with Umphrey’s McGee and Michael Franti, shows with Lettuce, Soulive and Joey Bada$$, collaborations, major festival appearances world-wide, recording a new album produced by Eric Krasno and an annual residency with special guests Rakim, Pharoahe Monch and Black Thought of The Roots at New York City’s Brooklyn Bowl.

The Soul Rebels started with an idea – to expand upon the pop music they loved on the radio and the New Orleans brass band tradition they grew up on. They took that tradition and blended funk and soul with elements of hip hop, jazz and rock. The band has settled on an eight-piece lineup that can be heard on their international debut release Unlock Your Mind. The Soul Rebels built a career around an eclectic live show that harnesses the power of horns and drums in the party like atmosphere of a dance club. When not touring, The Soul Rebels’ weekly show at New Orleans’ Le Bon Temps Roulé is known to erupt with the kind of contagious, shout-along musical mayhem that The Rebels bring with them wherever they perform.

On their travels, The Soul Rebels have collaborated live and played with notable artists and bands including Metallica, Green Day, Maceo Parker, Galactic, Slick Rick, Trombone Shorty, Joey Bada$$, Rakim, Prodigy of Mobb Deep, Big Freedia, The String Cheese Incident, Rahzel, Pharoahe Monch, Styles P of The Lox, Eric Krasno, Suzanne Vega and John Medeski as well as being billed on shows with Snoop Dogg, Alabama Shakes, Estelle, Cee Lo Green, Arcade Fire, Ice Cube, George Clinton, Shaggy and many others.

The Soul Rebels have been a mainstay at festivals all over the world, from the stages at Bonnaroo, SXSW, Outside Lands, to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Electric Forest and Austin City Limits, to recent festival appearances at the Bryon Bay Bluesfest in Australia, Shanghai Jazz Festival in China and the Java Jazz Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The Soul Rebels continue to chart new territory as they combine topnotch musicianship and songs with grooves that celebrate life in the time-honored New Orleans style.

“The Soul Rebels, New Orleans’ finest brass ensemble…” –VICE

“The Soul Rebels are the missing link between Public Enemy and Louis Armstrong.” –VILLAGE VOICE

“New Orleans’ top-shelf brass ensemble The Soul Rebels…wind-wielding wizardry of New Orleans’ finest.” –OKAYPLAYER

“Brace yourselves folks, these men are quickly solidifying themselves amongst NOLA’s proud big brass elite… and seem intent to sublimate the homogenoustones of the contemporary urban music landscape with the lush instrumentation of our culture’s root.” –OKAYPLAYER

“The Soul Rebels are rebelling against one, albeit detestable thing: starchy paint-by-numbers music.” –VIBE

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