"Fire and Brimstone" - Trombone Shorty

"Fire and Brimstone" (PDF) from the Trombone Shorty album, Say That To Say This.

(2023 revision):
The lead single from 2013’s Say That to Say This produced an accompanying music video that features New Orleans street art that captures Trombone Shorty’s essence through visual movement and lyrical representation painted on the walls of an urban structure. Author Jeff Chang suggests in his book Can’t Stop Won’t Stop that the pillars of hip hop are music, dance, and visual art. Given that New Orleans second-line culture and brass band traditions are inherently part of Trombone Shorty’s music, the intent of the “Fire and Brimstone” music video is to provide that final pillar, a visual bridge that crosses over from instrumental jazz into the media-saturated realm of twenty-first century hip hop.

In the album’s original press release from his website, Trombone Shorty acknowledges the influence of early East and West Coast hip hop on the creation of “Fire and Brimstone,” blended with a Southern “swampy, voodoo feel” that suits the eternal imagery behind the song’s lyrics. He co-wrote the song with the help of Alonzo “Novel” Stevenson - who also contributed the song “Mrs. Orleans” on 2011’s For True - and Taura Stinson, the long-time collaborator with producer Raphael Saadiq. Album engineer Charles Smith provided additional arranging assistance to create twelve bars of Trombone Shorty’s best improvisational flow.

Here is the YouTube music video for “Fire and Brimstone”:

Recommended reading: Trombone Shorty by Troy Andrews. Published by Abrams Books for Young Readers.