The Modern Brass Band

Taking up the story of bands and their development from the 1930s to the start of the new millennium, Roy Newsome discusses the contest tradition of brass bands, the Youth banding movement, repertoire, instrumentation and the impact of the media on bands and their music.

The first study of the performance practice, repertoire and context of the modern 'brass ensemble' in the musical world.

The rise of the brass band in 19th-century Britain is a historical, social and cultural phenomenon which represents the foundation of the modern international brass band movement. Authors such as Trevor Herbert, Arnold Myers and Roy Newsome mention and acknowledge the relevance of the Distin Family brass ensemble; however, extensive research has produced new information. This book examines the various Distin projects as the main reason why brass bands of today are established in their current form.

The Stooges Brass Band always had big dreams. From playing in the streets of New Orleans in the mid-1990s to playing stages the world over, they have held fast to their goal of raising brass band music and musicians to new heights—professionally and musically. In the intervening years, the band’s members have become family, courted controversy, and trained a new generation of musicians, becoming one of the city’s top brass bands along the way. Two decades after their founding, they have decided to tell their story. Can’t Be Faded: Twenty Years in the New Orleans Brass Band Game is a collaboration between musician and ethnomusicologist Kyle DeCoste and more than a dozen members of the Stooges Brass Band, past and present. It is the culmination of five years of interviews, research, and writing. Told with humor and candor, it’s as much a personal account of the Stooges’ careers as it is a story of the city’s musicians and, even more generally, a coming-of-age tale about black men in the United States at the turn of the twenty-first century. DeCoste and the band members take readers into the barrooms, practice rooms, studios, tour vans, and streets where the music is made and brotherhoods are shaped and strengthened. Comprised of lively firsthand accounts and honest dialogue, Can’t Be Faded is a dynamic approach to collaborative research that offers a sensitive portrait of the humans behind the horns.

Told in the words of the musicians themselves, Keeping the Beat on the Street celebrates the renewed passion and pageantry among black brass bands in New Orleans. Mick Burns introduces the people who play the music and shares their insights, showing why New Orleans is the place where jazz continues to grow. Brass bands waned during the civil rights era but revived around 1970 and then flourished in the 1980s when the music became cool with the younger generation. In the only book to cover this revival, Burns interviews members from a variety of bands, including the Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band, the Dirty Dozen, Tuba Fats' Chosen Few, and the Rebirth Brass Band. He captures their thoughts about the music, their careers, audiences, influences from rap and hip-hop, the resurgence of New Orleans social and pleasure clubs and second lines, traditional versus funk style, recording deals, and touring. For anyone who loves jazz and the city where it was born, Keeping the Beat on the Street is a book to savor. "We should be grateful to Mick Burns for undertaking the task of producing... the only book to cover the subject of what he rightly calls the brass band renaissance." -- New Orleans Music"A welcome look at the history of brass bands. These oral histories provide a valuable contribution to New Orleans musical history.... What shines through the musicians' words is love of craft, love of culture." -- New Orleans Times-Picayune "A seminal work about the Brass Bands of New Orleans." -- Louisiana Libraries

The authors have traced the evolution of the American band from its inception to the end of World War I, focusing on its sociological, rather than purely musical aspects. The relationship of band and band leader to community is clarified by the Hazens' basically democratic approach; even a miniscule ten-piece band from Oswayo, Pennsylvania is treated with affectionate respect. The book is lavishly illustrated with archival photographs, programs and other documents. ISBN 0-87474-547-0 (pbk) : $19.95.

Bands structured around western wind instruments are among the most widespread instrumental ensembles in the world. Although these ensembles draw upon European military traditions that spread globally through colonialism, militarism and missionary work, local musicians have adapted the brass band prototype to their home settings, and today these ensembles are found in religious processions and funerals, military manoeuvres and parades, and popular music genres throughout the world. Based on their expertise in ethnographic and archival research, the contributors to this volume present a series of essays that examine wind band cultures from a range of disciplinary perspectives, allowing for a comparison of band cultures across geographic and historical fields. The themes addressed encompass the military heritage of band cultures; local appropriations of the military prototype; links between bands and their local communities; the spheres of local band activities and the modes of sociability within them; and the role of bands in trajectories toward professional musicianship. This book will appeal to readers with an interest in ethnomusicology, colonial and post-colonial studies, community music practices, as well as anyone who has played with or listened to their local band.