“Poison / Fresh Prince” (PDF) from the TBC Brass Band album, To Be Continued.

Please contact TBC Brass Band regarding official sheet music.

If the roots of American music are planted in New Orleans, what happens then when the fruit returns to the soil?  As American music expanded throughout the land, technology brought the matured sound back home via records, mixtapes, and mashups, recycling the evolution.  Today, the sound of 90’s R&B echoes throughout the streets of New Orleans and inspires a unique blend of hip hop, bounce, and street funk.

The road leading to the corner of Bourbon & Canal, where TBC used to play in front of the Foot Locker, is as long as it is wide  Within the opening moments of Bell Biv DeVoe’s “Poison,” a quarter-century of American music history is encapsulated in the sampling of Clyde Stubblefield’s work on “The Funky Drummer.”  Additionally, the global influence of latin music and Kraftwerk on DJ Freeze’s production would eventually shape the sound of New Jack Swing from the Northeast. Furthermore, B.B.D. had branched off from New Edition who filled the vacancy of Gary, Indiana’s very own The Jackson 5, however the rise of Philly soul in the 70’s and 80’s, in part due to The O’Jays and LaVert, was enough to drive Motown out of its mind.  It started to make so much trouble that Motown got scared and Philly soul moved in with Jazzy Jeff and Uncle Q in Bel-Air. The mass media distribution through Hollywood saturated the country with R&B in the 90’s, eventually trickling it’s way back to the fertile crescent city where young musicians cultivated it with the traditions of brass band music… now you know.

Here’s a YouTube video of TBC performing the second line version of "Poison"

Recommended viewing: From The Mouthpiece On Back. Dir. Jason DaSilva and Colleen O'Halloran. Perf. To Be Continued Brass Band. Awl Films, 2008. DVD.