Hot 8 Brass Band’s second album, ‘The Life And Times Of… The Hot 8 Brass Band’, is out 12th November on Tru Thoughts, announcing the
emphatic return of New Orleans’ premier purveyors of roof raising, jazz
infused, funk and hip hop fuelled marching band music, straight from the
heart and fresh from the second line parades.
This is Hot 8 Brass Band’s first new material since their acclaimed
debut (2007’s ‘Rock With The Hot 8’, featuring their famous cover of
“Sexual Healing”) put them on the global stage. In the years since –
alongside their regular US headline shows, parades and community
projects – the group have supported the likes of Mos Def, Lauryn Hill
and Mary J Blige live, and played several international tours taking in
Glastonbury festival, Roskilde and more. Highly respected among fellow
musicians, they have guested on albums by the Blind Boys of Alabama and
Basement Jaxx. Having appeared in Spike Lee’s original post-Katrina
documentary When the Levees Broke, Hot 8 also featured in the follow-up,
When the Creek Don’t Rise; and HBO recently included their remarkable story in the hit Treme television series.
Hot 8 is a band with stories to tell. Neither fairytales nor
melodramas, but simple, often hard truths: the lives and the times of
the band’s eight full-time members, who have seen more than their share
of tragedy, not least the violent and untimely deaths of several of
their number, and the hurricane devastation and aftermath in their city.
In addition to their lifelong affinity with their instruments, Hot 8
Brass Band boast a rare depth of vocal talent to illuminate their tales,
and ‘The Life And Times Of…’ finds them exploring this further;
switching from commanding, funky lead vocals, to rapped verses laid down
with passion and skill, to melodic hooks and harmonies – that range
from emotive, gravelly baritones through instinctively whooped falsettos
– with abandon.
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