Artist.......: Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
Album........: EnregistrΘ α l'Olympia Bruno Coquatrix
Label........: n/a
Genre........: Jazz
Catnr........: n/a
Source.......: DVBS
Rip.date.....: 2014-01-11
Str.date.....: 2013-10-03
Quality......: 227kbps/48.0kHz/Joint Stereo
Url..........: http://tromboneshorty.com/
track title time
1. EnregistrΘ α l'Olympia Bruno Coquatrix 61:34
* Buckjump
* Suburbia
* Mrs Orleans
* One night Only
* Dumaine street
* Encore
* Hurricane Season
* Long weekend
* Fire & Brimstone
* St James
Runtime 61:34
Size 100.30
Release Notes:
Troy 'Trombone Shorty' Andrews has God-given talent, natural charisma and a
relentless drive to bridge music's past and future. His third outing for Verve
Records, Say That To Say This (Sept. 10), co-produced by Andrews and kindred
spirit Raphael Saadiq, sounds like nothing else out there, as Andrews and his
longtime band, Orleans Avenue - guitarist Pete Murano, bassist Mike Ballard and
drummer Joey Peebles - continue their natural musical evolution. In a very real
sense, the torch is passed from one great New Orleans band to another on the new
album, which features the first new studio recording from the original members
of the legendary Meters in 36 years, as they revisit their 1977 classic "Be My
Lady," with Andrews singing lead and playing horns.
The bandleader and multi-instrumentalist describes Say That To Say This as
"really funky, like James Brown mixed with The Meters and Neville Brothers, with
what I do on top, and we have a bit of R&B from Raphael's side. All the guys in
my band are big, big fans of his, so this is a real dream come true for us. And
he's a fan of New Orleans brass band music, which I didn't know beforehand. Just
listening to his music and the direction he's going in now, I thought that he
would be perfect to work with us. What drew me to him was his knowledge of what
came before and his imagination of where the music can move forward to. That's
the same way I think, so it worked out very well."
Saadiq doesn't just co-produce, he becomes a member of the band, playing a
variety of instruments and contributing backing vocals; he also had a hand in
writing three songs. Says Andrews of Saadiq: "He's a great producer, but he's
also a musician, so he was able to get in there, jam with us and take us to some
different places. And we were able to take him to some different places too."
"We felt a certain amount of pressure, because we knew we were working with one
of the great young producers and musicians," Andrews acknowledges. "But it was
good pressure, and Raphael being in the room with us inspired us to step up as
writers and players. We spent an initial two or three weeks in the studio in
L.A. working out the tracks, and I think having that stretch of uninterrupted
time really played a big part in how creative we were able to get. On the last
two records we were so busy touring that we would go in for three or four days
and then go out for a week, so we had to switch on and off between the stage
mentality and being creative in the studio. So this time, knowing we were gonna
be in the studio for two or three weeks straight, we reached down deep and were
able to do some things that we wouldn't have come up with if we'd been on a
tight schedule. It allowed us to be very free."
The first track laid down for the album, the pumping "Long Weekend," came
together in a flash during Andrews' initial foray to L.A. to hang with Saadiq.
"I went out there to see how we would jell," Troy recalls. "I met him and his
band in the studio and they came up with that song for me, right in front of my
face, and it was really fun to just sit back and watch it go down. It didn't
take that long - they were killin' it. I put the horn parts on that same day.
That track has a lot of energy; I love the way it feels."
The next step was to see how Saadiq would jell with Trombone Shorty & Orleans
Avenue. "The one where we really clicked for the first time was 'Get the
Picture,'" Andrews says of this burner, which has Saadiq's fingerprints all over
it, trading guitar licks with Murano and playing clavinet. "After that, he sat
back and watched us work, and every once in a while he'd come in and make a
suggestion," says Andrews of the recording sessions. "So he basically let us do
what we do and fine-tuned it if it needed it, and if it didn't he just kept it
the way we had it. And that was very inspiring, because if he thought it was
cool, then we felt like we'd done what we needed to do on our end."
The opening title track emphatically sets the vibe, as Murano unleashes a
barrage of power chords over a pummeling groove from Peebles and Ballard - but a
blast of brass from Trombone Shorty instantly alters the feel, bringing a more
elegant form of aggressiveness to the proceedings. The mood then shifts again to
a deeply soulful section in the manner of Earth, Wind & Fire, before powering
back into rocking mode. "That track is just a timeline of who we are and how we
think," says Andrews.
"For most of the album," he continues, "we wanted to get it as tight as we could
performing it in the studio, so we'd just play the song straight through, but we
couldn't do that with 'Shortyville,' which was just myself and Raphael. I
started that track by hitting a bass drum with a mallet, like you would in a New
Orleans brass band; then I played a full drum set on top of it. We built it up
from there part by part, with me doing the horns and Raphael playing the bass
and guitar."
Of "Fire & Brimstone," the lead single, Andrews notes, "The beat I was hearing
was an old-school hip-hop thing. I can't remember what we were listening to when
we came up with the idea, it might've been something by Dr. Dre, Easy E or
Run-D.M.C., but when I heard it, I said, 'Joey, let's do a beat like that
underneath the track so I can do some intricate things on top.' That's what we
did, and it came out with this swampy, voodoo feel."
As for the impromptu Meters reunion, Andrews was listening to the band's eighth
and final album, 1977's New Directions, one day, and as the smoothly soulful "Be
My Lady" wafted out of the car speakers, it hit him that the track's mellow,
romantic vibe ("laid-back in the cut," as he puts it) was exactly what his album
in progress needed. But rather than simply covering it, Andrews got it in his
head that he had to record it with The Meters themselves. When he told friends
of his plan, they told him he was dreaming. Since breaking up soon after
releasing New Directions, the four original members had performed together a
mere handful of times, and only on stage for special occasions, never in the
studio. What's more, there was no manager to contact; Andrews had to call each
one and ask if he'd be up for going in the studio with his former bandmates.
"With all four of them, when I asked the question, there was a second of
silence," Troy recounts with a laugh. "But then, each one of them said, 'If you
talk to the rest of the guys and they're up for it, then I'll do the track. And
even if you can't get everybody together, I would still love to play on it. So I
was able to get all of them to agree, and then I had to call all of them back to
tell them it was on. So they all came to the studio, including Cyril Neville,
who sang the original vocal; he does the background vocal and the ad-libbing on
the new track. At the end of one of the takes, they started jamming, and you
could see a sparkle in all of their eyes at the magic they could make together.
Whatever their differences, whatever reasons they don't work together, it went
out the window for those few minutes, and I got a chance to experience what it
used to be like when The Meters made all those classic records. I had the chills
while it was going on."
"After we were done," Andrews continues, "George Porter pulled me aside and
said, 'Thank you. You have gotten us to do something that people have been
trying to get us to do for 35 years,' and I was speechless. Because The Meters
helped to create a sound that gave me a foundation for doing what I do. It was
one of those magical moments in life for me, because in New Orleans, The Meters
are like the Beatles."
The title, Andrews explains, is a common New Orleans expression that essentially
means "To make a long story short," serving as a wonderfully on-point
description of the album and of Trombone Shorty's music in general. "This record
is a direct expression of everything we hear, everything we've seen and
everything we've been through musically," Andrews assets. "We're just making a
long story short."
Saadiq is equally thrilled with the results of this musical summit meeting of
young giants. "If you're a producer or musician, you want to work with other
great musicians," he says, "because it only betters you, I was just honored to
be a part of the project."
Andrews' previous projects include 2010's Grammy-nominated Backatown and his
sophomore effort, For True (2011), which spent 12 weeks atop Billboard's
Contemporary Jazz Chart. In the past few years alone, Andrews has appeared on
recent recordings by an eclectic assortment of artists ranging from Zac Brown to
Eric Clapton to Rod Stewart and Cee Lo Green, while taking the time to initiate
a mentoring program at Tulane University via his Trombone Shorty Foundation.
He's also been featured on the covers of Downbeat and Jazziz magazines, as well
as on Conan, The Tonight Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon,
Austin City Limits and in a recurring role on the hit HBO series Treme. The band
was also chosen to play the closing set at the 2013 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage
Festival, a huge honor in the world of true music lovers.
But for Andrews, the biggest thrill of all was performing at The White House in
February 2012. "That was a dream come true about 50 times over," he says. "When
we started playing, I forgot I was at the White House because I was on stage
with all this musical royalty - B.B. King, Mick Jagger, Booker T. Jones, Jeff
Beck, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, Gary Clark Jr., the list goes on. And
then, when I turned to the audience, there's the President and the First Lady.
I'm like, 'This can't be happening.'"
Good things continue to happen for Trombone Shorty, thanks to his virtuosity,
his dedication, and his ability to move people. That he pursues his passion with
such humility and unpretentiousness makes his still-unfolding story as
compelling as the music he's making along the way.