"Everybody In The World" - Trombone Shorty

“Everybody In The World” (PDF) from the Trombone Shorty album, Lifted

During the folk revival of American music in the Sixties and Seventies that coincided with the fight for Civil Rights, the musical traditions of New Orleans and banjoist Danny Barker appeared throughout popular culture, most recognizable by the work of Olympia Brass Band and Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Over the following decades, into the twenty-first century and beyond Hurricane Katrina, the efforts of Republican party politics toward hindering Black prosperity in the States forced New Orleans brass bands like Rebirth, Hot 8, and Soul Rebels, to focus on cultural preservation at the local level.

But with the digital revolution of user-created media, it became easier for mainstream audiences to witness first-hand accounts of the devastation from Hurricane Katrina, gun violence, and police brutality inflicted upon members of TBC and Stooges Brass Band, as told through documentary films, scripted dramas, and touring artists whose homes and livelihood had been destroyed. Somehow the culture of New Orleans has survived, and modern brass bands like New Breed, Da Truth, Big 6, and Young Fellaz have thrived by utilizing social media to share New Orleans traditions with everybody in the world.

Here is a YouTube video featuring Trombone Shorty with New Breed Brass Band:

Recommended reading: The 5 O’Clock Band by Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews. Published by Abrams Books.