The Rebirth Brass Band
If this years trip to the Big Easy, for let’s say the Voodoo Fest or Mardi Gras, is cancelled due to fears of inept government infrastructure or possibly being shot in the face because you were mistaken for an aid worker; have no fear a fat slice of N’awlins is visiting O-Town. The vivacious sounds and raucous rhythms of RBB will stomp and march their way through The Social extolling the virtues of brass band tradition with a twist. They blend their traditional feel with contemporary sensibilities. Booming up-tempo tunes, spirituals, rags, and marching numbers are infused heavy funk, pounding rhythms, and pop, rock, and rap nuances. Like fellow New Orleans progressives the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, RBB invokes a cocky and cool redesign of the brass band.
Each tune starts with the tuba, but not your chubby cousin Clarence’s tuba, but thick rhythmic notes that sound more like hip-hop bass lines than a high school marching band. Bright vivid horns soon follow with a booming bass drum and cadence driven snare, creating a sound that is more foot driven than heady. Their music is true and honest, graduating from the streets of New Orleans to play theatres and festivals world wide. So we advise you to come and listen to the music that started it all in America and feel what it was like to be a rocker at the turn of the twentieth century. Think of the beauty of the Mississippi River Delta, get drunk, get beads, (ladies) take off your shirts, and give room service a jangle to fetch you some etouffee.
Article originally appeared in the Orlando Weekly, November 17 -23 2005
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