"Vieux Carre" - Trombone Shorty

“Vieux Carre” (PDF) from the Trombone Shorty album, Say That To Say This.

(2023 revision):
Italian cobbler Antonio Monteleone established the Hotel Monteleone in 1886 between New Orleans’ business district and the French Quarter, where it has remained a family-operated historic landmark ever since. It has served as both a real-life and fictional location in literature and film, and it became an instant hotspot in 1949 with the installation of a rotating bar, redesigned in 1992 to become the Carousel Piano Bar & Lounge. It was there where the Vieux Carré cocktail was invented, a blend of colonial liquors, using the French translation of “old square” to reflect the mixed cultures of the city.

In that sense, however, “Vieux Carre” seems like an inappropriate title for this Trombone Shorty instrumental. Written by Troy Andrews and drummer Joey Peebles, it can be easy to assume that the composition is a product of a creative jam session between the two musicians, yet the credits list Andrews as the drummer on this performance - as well as all the horn parts for the entire album - with producer Raphael Saadiq on bass and Peebles credited only for percussion. Regardless of his limited contributions to this recording, Joey Peebles remains the driving force and energetic punch behind the Trombone Shorty supafunkrock concoction.

Here is a YouTube video about the New Orleans signature cocktail:

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