STOOGES BRASS BAND

with Special Guest The Good Thing
FRI AUG 9 at Artisphere

Arlington, VA— The Stooges Brass Band, one of the elite brass bands of New Orleans, brings their high energy and innovative blend of traditional New Orleans brass sounds and contemporary hip-hop beats to Artisphere on Friday, August 9. The Stooges immerse crowds in a high-energy, cut loose vibe that’s contemporary yet deeply rooted in the culturally rich musical legacy of city of New Orleans. General admission tickets are $20; lounge level tickets in the balcony art gallery with private bar are $30. Arlington’s Bayou Bakery has partnered with Artisphere to offer patrons New Orleans specials before the show, including a ‘Brass Monkey’ cocktail.

Winner of the Big Easy Music Awards “Best Contemporary Brass Band” and crowned “Best Brass Band” at the famed Red Bull Street Kings contest under the iconic Claiborne Bridge,The Stooges Brass Band has established itself as a New Orleans institution. Including some of the city’s best players—many who have graduated from the highly respected New Orleans Center for Creative Arts—and an impressive list of alumni to boot (Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews and Big Sam Williams were once members), the band exudes ‘Big Easy’ spirit, mixing second-line rhythms with R&B and hip-hop for a tuba-driven explosion of funky goodness. Current members include Walter Ramsey, Alfred Growe, Ersel Bogan, Virgil Tiller, Chris Cotton, Eric Gordon, Glen Preston, Thadeus Ramsey, Antoine Coleman, Clifton Smith and John Dotson.

Along with the auspicious Red Bull “Best Brass Band” title, the band won an all-expenses paid trip for a recording and mentorship session with legendary producer Mannie Fresh in the Red Bull Studios in Los Angeles, California. The results werefour blistering music videos that weave in between brass, funk, and jazz, mixing in Fresh’s famous hip-hop production techniques. The Stooges have toured clubs throughout the country and appeared at famed festivals such at Bonnaroo, South by Southwest, headlining the Utah Arts Festival, Discover Jazz Festival, American Folk Festival, High Sierra Music Festival, Great American Brass Band Festival, and more.

In June 2012, the band was engaged by the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan as cultural ambassadors to New Orleans and embarked on a two week tour. As part of the cultural exchange mission, the Stooges funked up Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad and Hyderabad, where they apparently were the first-ever American band to perform. The tour culminated with a collaboration between Pakistani singer Asif Sinan and the Stooges on a song called “Yaro Yahe Dosti Hay.” They continued to tour internationally, with a two week tour of the United Kingdom for the Edinburgh Jazz Festival and the Durham Brass Festival.

The Stooges released their first studio album, It’s About Time, in 2004. With the exception of the street standard, “Paul Barbarin’s Second Line,” the album introduced 13 smoking new tunes to the brass band songbook. Every one of them drips with the feeling of a Sunday afternoon in New Orleans spent parading through the streets, with one hand raised triumphantly in the air, the other grasping an ice cold beverage.

The brass band style of music dates back to the 19th Century, with its roots in the time-honored tradition of jazz funerals. Brass bands have inhabited the city’s streets ever since, and legends like Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton and Wynton Marsalis all played in them. Traditionally, New Orleans brass bands could feature various instrumentations, often including trumpets, trombones, saxophones, sousaphones and percussion. The music played by these groups was often a fusion between European-styled military band music and African folk music brought to the Americas by West African slaves and the idiom played a significant role in the development of traditional jazz.

The Good Thing

Fronted by a female bassist/lead vocalist that lays down some hard core bass grooves and sings with big ole soul, “The Good Thing”, is a versatile, energetic and soulful, band that is electrifying. This band will keep you grooving all night as they go from an old school funky blues to hit on a classic soul tune, crank out a rocker, put a bluesy/funky twist on a newer favorite and then throw in an original song. “The Good Thing” was formed by Kim Jade Fry on bass and vocals (formerly of “Heir of the Dog”) and is rounded out by one of the baddest musicians in town, Charles Wright, on guitar and vocals and groove monsters, John Modell or Sean Peck, on the drums. And on most nights, you will find the band performing with a three piece horn section, bringing an even higher energy to the band and helping to capture an authentic classic sound.