Rebirth Brass Band
Y
March 7, 2005
The Knitting Factory, Hollywood
Thursday, March 3
Foot-driven rather than ear-driven, the Rebirth Brass Band laid out the rhythmic goods immediately and had the exuberant patrons jumping up and down like kindergartners.
Three trumpets and a pair of trombones toplined the instrumentation, with a tenor saxophone for contrast and a tuba, snare drum and bass drum to provide the monster beat.
The eager dancers were ordered to put their right foot forward and then their left foot forward in the first of a nightlong series of shouted instructions: "OK, we gon' poddy," "Get your back off the wall," "Go, Shorty" and "Evabody! Jump!"
Mostly, the trombones and the trumpets repeated one urgent rhythmic figure or another to fuel the dancers as the soloists took turns grandstanding, with high trills resounding from the trumpets and garish tailgating coming out of the trombones. They could all play bebop, however, because they're from New Orleans, the jazz capital.
Saxophonist Byron Bernard distinguished himself by playing pretty much straight ahead all evening, with no squawking and no Coltrane cloning. And trumpeters Glen Andrews, Shamar Allen and Derek Shezbie could do that, too, at least for a chorus or two before taking to their high-wire acts.
Stafford Agee played a couple of licks on his trombone that showed he loved the great Bill Harris out of the Woody Herman band, and his partner Herbert Stevens was sufficiently agile when he wasn't doing his Kid Ory growl stuff. Philip Frazier was rock solid on tuba.
The songs were only moderately raunchy, with lines like, "Don't touch my stereo" and "You gotta get over to get under." They did "I Used to Love Her, but It's All Over Now" and "The Lord Is Coming, Get Out of the Way."
The boys did not play their immortal "Shake Them Titties." Instead, they brought all the women up onstage to shimmy and shake in person for a nice long finale, which the ladies got into. You might even say that was the whole purpose of this hot-blooded evening.
Thursday, March 3
Foot-driven rather than ear-driven, the Rebirth Brass Band laid out the rhythmic goods immediately and had the exuberant patrons jumping up and down like kindergartners.
Three trumpets and a pair of trombones toplined the instrumentation, with a tenor saxophone for contrast and a tuba, snare drum and bass drum to provide the monster beat.
The eager dancers were ordered to put their right foot forward and then their left foot forward in the first of a nightlong series of shouted instructions: "OK, we gon' poddy," "Get your back off the wall," "Go, Shorty" and "Evabody! Jump!"
Mostly, the trombones and the trumpets repeated one urgent rhythmic figure or another to fuel the dancers as the soloists took turns grandstanding, with high trills resounding from the trumpets and garish tailgating coming out of the trombones. They could all play bebop, however, because they're from New Orleans, the jazz capital.
Saxophonist Byron Bernard distinguished himself by playing pretty much straight ahead all evening, with no squawking and no Coltrane cloning. And trumpeters Glen Andrews, Shamar Allen and Derek Shezbie could do that, too, at least for a chorus or two before taking to their high-wire acts.
Stafford Agee played a couple of licks on his trombone that showed he loved the great Bill Harris out of the Woody Herman band, and his partner Herbert Stevens was sufficiently agile when he wasn't doing his Kid Ory growl stuff. Philip Frazier was rock solid on tuba.
The songs were only moderately raunchy, with lines like, "Don't touch my stereo" and "You gotta get over to get under." They did "I Used to Love Her, but It's All Over Now" and "The Lord Is Coming, Get Out of the Way."
The boys did not play their immortal "Shake Them Titties." Instead, they brought all the women up onstage to shimmy and shake in person for a nice long finale, which the ladies got into. You might even say that was the whole purpose of this hot-blooded evening.
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