“Here Come The Girls” (PDF) from the Stanton Moore album, With You In Mind

In 2017, Trombone Shorty and drummer Stanton Moore both released separate versions of “Here Come The Girls,” the Ernie K-Doe hit song written by Allen Toussaint. Coincidentally, both versions also featured a Neville brother - Moore acquired Cyril Neville to sing while his nephew, Ivan Neville, accompanied Shorty on the piano. Yet the most striking similarity is that both versions featured a solo from Trombone Shorty, creating a chicken-and-egg scenario for any curious listeners.

Because Trombone Shorty’s version appeared earlier that year, one could assume that his performance on Stanton Moore’s album may have borrowed from his own work. Furthermore, Parking Lot Symphony - the trombonist’s debut album on the American major label Blue Note Records - reached more audiences and featured “Here Come The Girls” as its lead single, packaging the brass instrumentalist as a solo artist with a hot “new” R&B song just in time for the summer, whereas by comparison Stanton Moore’s tribute album, With You In Mind, was quietly released on the subordinate Dutch label Cool Green Recordings. But Moore’s effort was faithful to the original recording - simply adding the trombone solo over the song’s form - and it would seem more reasonable that the performance then inspired Trombone Shorty to develop his own arrangement - including a separate instrumental section that could be extended for live performance or omitted for the radio edit.

Here is a YouTube video of Stanton Moore rehearsing his version of “Here Come The Girls”:

Recommended reading: Take It To The Street: A Study in New Orleans Street Beats and Second-line Rhythms As Applied to Funk by Stanton Moore. Published by Carl Fischer.