The Stooges Brass Band is a

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, brass band. The group was formed in 1996 after band leader Walter Ramsey saw a performance by the

Rebirth Brass Band The Rebirth Brass Band is a New Orleans brass band. The group was founded in 1983 by Phillip "Tuba Phil" Frazier, his brother Keith Frazier, Kermit Ruffins,Skelly, RichardAllMusic Profile Retrieved 2013-02-9 and classmates from Joseph S. Clark ...

. The Stooges Brass Band is known for incorporating elements of hip hop,

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

and R&B into a more traditional brass band framework. The band has played the

Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an American annual four-day music festival developed and founded by Superfly Presents and AC Entertainment. Since its first year in 2002, it has been held at what is now Great Stage Park on a farm in M ...

, the

New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (commonly called Jazz Fest or Jazzfest) is an annual celebration of local music and culture held at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jazz Fest attracts thousands of visitors to New ...

High Sierra Music Festival High Sierra Music Festival is a multi-day music festival held in Quincy, California, United States, a mountainous area about 80 miles northwest of Reno, Nevada. History The first High Sierra Music Festival was in 1991, and was the genesis of ...

, and

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

. In 2012, they were selected by the

U.S. State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...

to tour

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

, and became the first American band to play in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

Biography

The Stooges Brass Band started in 1996 when band leader Walter Ramsey combined members of two rival high school marching bands. After seeing the

play, Ramsey was inspired to experiment with merging hip hop, funk, and R & B, influences into a traditional New Orleans brass band framework. The band name evolved out of their stage antics, when one of the band members referred to the rest as “a bunch of stooges.” Early members included

Trombone Shorty Troy Andrews (born January 2, 1986), also known by the stage name Trombone Shorty, is an American musician, producer, actor and philanthropist from New Orleans, Louisiana. He is best known as a trombone and trumpet player but also plays drums, ...

, ’Big’ Sam Williams, Drew Baham, Ellis Joseph, Sammy Cyrus, and Dwayne Williams. Over the next decade, the Stooges Brass Band gained a reputation in local clubs and second line parades. Early successes included recording with

Jessica Simpson Jessica Ann Simpson (born July 10, 1980) is an American singer, actress, entrepreneur and philanthropist. After performing in church choirs as a child, Simpson signed with Columbia Records in 1997, aged seventeen. Her debut studio album, '' Swe ...

, and production work for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

Red Bull Street Kings competition

In October 2010, the Stooges Brass Band won the

Red Bull Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks of Austria, Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With 38% market share, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2019. Since its launch in 1987, more than 100 billion cans of Red Bull have been sold worldwid ...

Street Kings competition. The event featured four prominent brass bands in an elimination-style competition. Red Bull flew the band out to their L.A. studios to record an EP and video music series with hip hop producer

Mannie Fresh Byron Otto Thomas (born March 20, 1969), better known by his stage name Mannie Fresh, is an American music producer and rapper. He's best known for his productions on Cash Money Records releases, as well being half of the hip hop duo (alongside ...

. The event was covered by the

Documentary Channel A documentary channel is a specialty channel which focuses on broadcasting documentaries. Some documentary channels further specialize by dedicating their television programming to specific types of documentaries or documentaries in a specific ar ...

, who released a documentary in 2011.

Touring

In April 2011, the Stooges Brass Band won the Best Contemporary Brass Band award from the Big Easy Music Awards. The band began touring more aggressively in 2012, playing

, the

, Edinburgh Jazz Festival,

Essence Music Festival The Essence Festival, known as "the party with a purpose", is an annual music festival which started in 1995 as a one-time event to celebrate the 25th anniversary of ''Essence'', a magazine aimed primarily towards African-American women. It becam ...

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...

Out Of Doors Series,

, and others. In June 2012, the band was selected by the U.S. State Department to serve as cultural ambassadors on a tour to

. They performed in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital T ...

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

, and

Can't Be Faded

In 2020, the Stooges became the first brass band in New Orleans to author a book with the release of ''Can’t Be Faded: Twenty Years in the New Orleans Brass Band Game'', published by the

University Press of Mississippi The University Press of Mississippi, founded in 1970, is a publisher that is sponsored by the eight state universities in Mississippi. Universities * Alcorn State University *Delta State University *Jackson State University *Mississippi State U ...

. Co-authored with Canadian music scholar Kyle DeCoste, the book chronicles the careers of sixteen past and present band members and documents the city’s brass band scene at the turn of the twenty-first century.

Discography

''It’s About Time (2003)''

''Street Music (vinyl only release, 2013)''

''Thursday Night House Party (2016)''

References

External links

Stooges Brass Band Official website

The Red Bull Street Kings Competition
{{Authority control American jazz ensembles from New Orleans Jazz musicians from New Orleans Brass bands from New Orleans Musical groups established in 1996