"Say That To Say This" - Trombone Shorty

"Say That To Say This'" (PDF) from the Trombone Shorty album, Say That To Say This

(2023 revision):
Originally released in 2013, Trombone Shorty’s third and final album on Verve Records, Say That To Say This, intended to re-package the New Orleans jazz musician as an R&B superstar. Much of the album’s press focused on co-producer Rapheal Saadiq, the music industry veteran and former member of Tony! Toni! Toné! who co-billed a 2012 tour with Shorty’s previous mentor, Lenny Kravitz. From his own Blakeslee Studio in North Hollywood, California, Saadiq set out to elevate the 27 year-old musician from bandleader to singer/songwriter, utilizing only the basic rhythm section of Shorty’s touring band, Orleans Avenue. Meanwhile, the album’s horn section was performed entirely by Trombone Shorty who layered multiple trombone and trumpet parts - no saxophones appear on this album - so, if anything, Say That To Say This only confirmed Shorty’s legacy as a virtuosic instrumentalist.

In a similar fashion, it was also around this era when there was a noticeable absence of saxophone within New Orleans brass band music. Perhaps it was inspired by TBC Brass Band’s decision not to replace its saxophonist, Brandon Franklin, who was murdered in 2010 by gun violence. Or perhaps the saxophonists had simply grown tired of competing against a tide of post-Katrina brass musicians who flooded the local scene. Whatever the cause may have been for the modern woodwind shortage, the ‘00s were the highwater mark for New Orleans brass band music, as popularized throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, because the saxophone was the direct link between jazz and R&B.

Here is a YouTube video of the album’s electronic press kit (EPK):

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