Krannert Center for the Performing Arts

New Orleans’ Own Hot 8 Brass Band

Friday, October 16, 2009, at 7:30pm | Tryon Festival Theatre

The New Orleans second line tradition commenced with the second wave of people who, drawn in by the rousing music at the notable jazz funerals, would pick up their parasols and handkerchiefs and join the processionals as dancers. Burning down the streets with “defiant swing” (New Yorker), the Hot 8 Brass Band builds on this convention with its funky, hip hop-influenced sound born in the heart of tremendous tragedy. The band has lost three members to violence, the musicians were displaced by Hurricane Katrina, and trumpeter Terrell Batiste lost both legs in a roadside accident. In response, Hot 8 turned that defiance into perseverance—spearheading the Save Our Brass! program to bring music back to devastated New Orleans, participating in the Finding Our Folk Tour to link students with Katrina survivors and their narratives, and speaking out in Spike Lee’s documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. Their well-worn, well-loved horns have now traveled across the globe, offering an energizing fusion of familiar parade songs, the occasional modern funeral march, and inspired brass covers of tunes like Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing” to revelers the world over. On this October evening, you’ll feel the shimmering heat from a group whose sound is “as hot as the day” during a New Orleans summer (All about Jazz).

Recommended for ages 10 and up

Download the program for this performance
Corporate Platinum Sponsor:
WICD-TV/ABC NewsChannel 15

Patron Co-sponsors:
Sylvia and Thomas Dunning
Anonymous

Corporate Silver Sponsor:
Sharon Harkness Inc. at Keller Williams Realty