Upcoming: Soul Rebels @ Rockwood Music Hall

Upcoming: Michael Arnone's Crawfish Fest is just around the corner

Upcoming: Soul Rebels @ Brooklyn Bowl (3 nights!)

The Soul Rebels

with Special Guests

Thu, February 14-16 2013

 

 

The SOUL REBELS formed when Lumar LeBlanc and Derrick Moss, originally members of New Orleans’ iconic Dejean’s Young Olympia Brass Band, decided they wanted to play the new, exciting music they were hearing on the radio while respecting the tradition they loved. Both New Orleans natives, the pair was steeped in the fundamentals of New Orleans jazz, but inevitably, contemporary styles of music began to seep into their psyches. While LeBlanc attended the famed St. Augustine High School, Moss went to Lil’ Wayne’s alma mater McMain High School, and paraded alongside soon-to-be Cash Money Records CEO Ronald “Slim” Williams in the school’s marching band. New sounds were all around and they found them as exciting as the horn-combo style featured in jazz funerals since the turn of the Twentieth Century.

“We wanted to make our own sound without disrespecting the brass tradition,” LeBlanc recalls, “so we knew we had to break away.” They found a stylistic middle ground when they spun off and formed a band of young, like-minded local players from all over New Orleans. Graduates of university music programs throughout the South, the band took the marching band format they had learned in school and incorporated influences from outside the city as well as late-breaking local styles – R&B, funk and hip-hop – especially through half-sung, half-rapped lyrics. “Most of our originals have vocals,” says LeBlanc. “You wouldn’t have done that in a traditional brass band.”

Soon, the Soul Rebels’ contagious originals and updated takes on standards won them a loyal local audience. They began rocking some of New Orleans’ most beloved live music venues. A chance gig opening for the Neville Brothers got them a real start—and an official name. It was youngest brother Cyril Neville who first called them “Soul Rebels,” a good name for a band that strived to incite positive change in its treasured musical heritage. Since those days, the band has settled on an eight-piece lineup, building a career around an eclectic live show that harnesses the power of horns and drums in the party-like atmosphere of a dance club. Their weekly show at Uptown New Orleans spot Le Bon Temps Roulé has been known to descend into a sweaty shout-along as the band mixes up songs from its five studio albums with hits by Jay-Z and OutKast.

While touring the U.S., the Soul Rebels have shared the stage with notable artists from many corners of the pop and jazz worlds, including Arcade Fire, The Roots, Bootsy Collins, Robert Plant & Jimmy Page, Counting Crows, Green Day, Drive By Truckers, James Brown, Roy Hargrove, Allen Toussaint, Chuck Brown, Terence Blanchard, The Gap Band, Better than Ezra and many more. Averaging around 250 shows per year, the Soul Rebels have brought the party to stages as far away as South Africa and Europe, playing some of the world’s best-known music events, including, Umbria Jazz Fest, Antibes Jazz Festival, The Montreal Jazz festival, Bonnaroo, the Wanee Festival and, of course, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

When Hurricane Katrina struck their hometown in 2005, the band scattered across the region. Though a few members relocated to cities in Texas, the band frequently reconvened for gigs in New Orleans, this time with a renewed purpose. “Music has been the number one vehicle for Katrina recovery,” says LeBlanc. “That catastrophe has brought so much world wide attention to our music.”

Indeed, since the storm, the band has been more successful than ever serving as an international ambassador of the New Orleans sound. Now a hardcore touring band with a solid-as-ever lineup, the band has recently represented its hometown on television, appearing in the season finale of the HBO series Treme, the Discovery Channel hit After the Catch, and the NBC broadcast of the parade before the Saints’ winning 2010 Super Bowl.

In January of 2012, the band will finally release its first international album, Unlock Your Mind, on Rounder Records. This new song-driven studio effort includes guest appearances by Cyril Neville, Trombone Shorty and Meters guitarist Leo Nocentelli. The album was produced by Rounder VP of A&R Scott Billington, who was also at the helm of many of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band’s groundbreaking albums.

The Soul Rebels continue charting new territory today. Called “the missing link between Public Enemy and Louis Armstrong” by the Village Voice, the Soul Rebels combine top notch musicianship and songs with grooves that celebrate life in time-honored New Orleans style.

Soul Rebels featured on NFL Honors Awards Show & in Superbowl Promotions

Watch: Soul Rebels feat. Maceo Parker - "Funky Good Time" @ Highline Ballroom

Watch: Soul Rebels & Jonathan Batiste cover Stevie Wonder

Upcoming: Soul Rebels w/ special guests @ Highline Ballroom

Soul Rebels To Play NYC Show With Special Guests

It might only be October, but Mardi Gras is making its way up north anyway. New Orleans brass powerhouse The Soul Rebels will be playing a show at New York City’s Highline Ballroom as part of the CMJ Music Marathon. The show will take place October 19 at 12:30am. The band will be joined by special guests Maceo Parker, Moon Hooch, American Royalty and Billy Martin of Medeski, Martin & Wood. The Soul Rebels are a staple of the New Orleans music scene, and have collaborated with a variety artists like Green Day, Metallica, Kanye West, Galactic and Cee Lo Green. Their latest album, Unlock Your Mind was released in January 2012 and features guest appearances by Cyril Neville, Trombone Shorty and Meters guitarist Leo Neocentelli. In other words, these guys know how to bring the funk. Tickets to the show are on sale now.

Stream some Live NolaFunk

Soul Rebels post-Galactic show @ Lucille's (BB King's)

THE SOUL REBELS BRASS BAND
Late Night After-Party Jam
Following the band's Terminal 5 concert with Galactic!
February 25, 2012

Showtime @ 12:30AM
Doors Open @ 12:00AM 

Imagine blending the sounds of Mardi Gras funk, soul, hard rock, afrobeat, and reggae so seamlessly it defies category. Now shrink that idea into a eight-piece ensemble, add a hip-hop sensibility plus a hundred years of New Orleans jazz tradition, and you get the Louisiana sound of The Soul Rebels. The band first formed when Lumar LeBlanc and Derrick Moss, originally members of New Orleans' iconic Dejean's Young Olympia Brass Band, decided they wanted to play the new, exciting music they were hearing on the radio while respecting the tradition they loved. They found a stylistic middle ground when they spun off and formed a band of young, like-minded local players from all over New Orleans.

Since their early days performing as a local favorite in New Orleans, The Soul Rebels have shared the stage with notable artists from many corners of the pop and jazz worlds, including Arcade Fire, The Roots, Bootsy Collins, Robert Plant & Jimmy Page, Counting Crows, Green Day, Drive By Truckers, James Brown, Roy Hargrove, Allen Toussaint, Chuck Brown, Terence Blanchard, The Gap Band, Better than Ezra and many more. Averaging around 250 shows per year, The Soul Rebels have brought the party to stages as far away as South Africa and Europe, playing some of the world's best-known music events, including the Umbria Jazz Fest, the Antibes Jazz Festival, The Montreal Jazz Festival, Bonnaroo, the Wanee Festival and, of course, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

This past January, The Soul Rebels finally released their first international album, Unlock Your Mind, on Rounder Records. This new song-driven studio effort includes guest appearances by Cyril Neville, Trombone Shorty, and Meters guitarist Leo Nocentelli. Be sure to check out this band now before they rock Bonnaroo, Electric Forest, and many other festivals and concerts around the world. The band just sold out Brooklyn Bowl, did a week with Metallica, jammed with Green Day, toured with The New Mastersounds, and are currently touring the U.S. with Galactic! Called "the missing link between Public Enemy and Louis Armstrong" by the Village Voice, The Soul Rebels continue to combine top-notch musicianship and songs with grooves that celebrate life in time-honored New Orleans style.

Upcoming: Soul Rebels (record release) Friday @ Brooklyn Bowl

w/ Afroskull

Fri, February 3, 2012

The SOUL REBELS formed when Lumar LeBlanc and Derrick Moss, originally members of New Orleans’ iconic Dejean’s Young Olympia Brass Band, decided they wanted to play the new, exciting music they were hearing on the radio while respecting the tradition they loved. Both New Orleans natives, the pair was steeped in the fundamentals of New Orleans jazz, but inevitably, contemporary styles of music began to seep into their psyches. While LeBlanc attended the famed St. Augustine High School, Moss went to Lil’ Wayne’s alma mater McMain High School, and paraded alongside soon-to-be Cash Money Records CEO Ronald “Slim” Williams in the school’s marching band. New sounds were all around and they found them as exciting as the horn-combo style featured in jazz funerals since the turn of the Twentieth Century.

“We wanted to make our own sound without disrespecting the brass tradition,” LeBlanc recalls, “so we knew we had to break away.” They found a stylistic middle ground when they spun off and formed a band of young, like-minded local players from all over New Orleans. Graduates of university music programs throughout the South, the band took the marching band format they had learned in school and incorporated influences from outside the city as well as late-breaking local styles – R&B, funk and hip-hop – especially through half-sung, half-rapped lyrics. “Most of our originals have vocals,” says LeBlanc. “You wouldn’t have done that in a traditional brass band.”

Soon, the Soul Rebels’ contagious originals and updated takes on standards won them a loyal local audience. They began rocking some of New Orleans’ most beloved live music venues. A chance gig opening for the Neville Brothers got them a real start—and an official name. It was youngest brother Cyril Neville who first called them “Soul Rebels,” a good name for a band that strived to incite positive change in its treasured musical heritage. Since those days, the band has settled on an eight-piece lineup, building a career around an eclectic live show that harnesses the power of horns and drums in the party-like atmosphere of a dance club. Their weekly show at Uptown New Orleans spot Le Bon Temps Roulé has been known to descend into a sweaty shout-along as the band mixes up songs from its five studio albums with hits by Jay-Z and OutKast.

While touring the U.S., the Soul Rebels have shared the stage with notable artists from many corners of the pop and jazz worlds, including Arcade Fire, The Roots, Bootsy Collins, Robert Plant & Jimmy Page, Counting Crows, Green Day, Drive By Truckers, James Brown, Roy Hargrove, Allen Toussaint, Chuck Brown, Terence Blanchard, The Gap Band, Better than Ezra and many more. Averaging around 250 shows per year, the Soul Rebels have brought the party to stages as far away as South Africa and Europe, playing some of the world’s best-known music events, including, Umbria Jazz Fest, Antibes Jazz Festival, The Montreal Jazz festival, Bonnaroo, the Wanee Festival and, of course, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

When Hurricane Katrina struck their hometown in 2005, the band scattered across the region. Though a few members relocated to cities in Texas, the band frequently reconvened for gigs in New Orleans, this time with a renewed purpose. “Music has been the number one vehicle for Katrina recovery,” says LeBlanc. “That catastrophe has brought so much world wide attention to our music.”

Indeed, since the storm, the band has been more successful than ever serving as an international ambassador of the New Orleans sound. Now a hardcore touring band with a solid-as-ever lineup, the band has recently represented its hometown on television, appearing in the season finale of the HBO series Treme, the Discovery Channel hit After the Catch, and the NBC broadcast of the parade before the Saints’ winning 2010 Super Bowl.

In January of 2012, the band will finally release its first international album, Unlock Your Mind, on Rounder Records. This new song-driven studio effort includes guest appearances by Cyril Neville, Trombone Shorty and Meters guitarist Leo Nocentelli. The album was produced by Rounder VP of A&R Scott Billington, who was also at the helm of many of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band’s groundbreaking albums.

The Soul Rebels continue charting new territory today. Called “the missing link between Public Enemy and Louis Armstrong” by the Village Voice, the Soul Rebels combine top notch musicianship and songs with grooves that celebrate life in time-honored New Orleans style.

 

Afroskull

 

Afroskull is greasy persuasion and bad gris-gris. A New York City funk/rock collective by way of New Orleans, the ‘Skull is a sonic gumbo that is one part Funkadelic and one part Black Sabbath with generous helpings of Zappaesque runs and jazzoid horns. The interplay of their heady musicianship and fat bottomed grooves helps to keep les bon temps rouler all night long.

Born of saintly happenstance and house party jam sessions in The Big Easy, Afroskull has been intent on setting about the musical canvas with broad strokes and a menacing palette for more then a decade. Indulging in the sweet cross pollination of musical genres, they have created a hybrid sound they can call their very own. Taking their name from the perceived halo, that well worn LP fade, which framed the shrouded skull on the back cover of “Steppenwolf Live,” the band, in one word conceived a moniker that spoke to the heavy boogies they were cranking out on a regular basis.

Upcoming: 2 Nights of Dr. John & The Lower 911

NPR's "The Music Of New Orleans, After The Storm"

In advance of the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, All Things Considered has been talking about recovery along the Gulf Coast: what's changed, what's moved, what's come back. The musical heartbeat of New Orleans has clearly been shifted by what's become known simply as "the storm."

Nick Spitzer has spent his life immersed in the music of Louisiana — he hosts the public radio program American Routes from New Orleans. In an interview with All Things Considered host Melissa Block, he says that the cultural disaster he feared after the storm has not come to pass.

"Early on, music became essential to the sense of, 'Why should somebody come back, and how will the city recover?' " Spitzer says. "We found that a lot of it was the intangible sense of music in the neighborhoods and the clubs and the lifestyle. It's a powerful culture, it's a diverse culture, and it's been right there in the middle of getting us to where we are now."

Spitzer discusses some of the musicians and musical projects in New Orleans who have been active since the storm, including the Soul Rebels Brass Band; Derrick Tabb and the Roots of Music program; and a special collaboration featuring Mos Def, Lenny Kravitz, Tim Robbins and a few New Orleans musicians.

Related Links

'American Routes' Website

The 'American Routes' Archive And The Cultural History Of New Orleans: NPR's 'A Blog Supreme'

In Pictures: New Orleans Day @ Lincoln Center

By Dino Perrucci Photography

Soul Rebels Brass Band w/Glen David Andrews 2nd Line - NYC 8/8/10



Soul Rebels Brass Band w/Glen David Andrews - NYC 8/8/10


Big Chief Bo Dollis - Lincoln Center, NYC 8/8/10


Big Chief Bo Dollis & The Wild Magnolias - Lincoln Center, NYC 8/8/10


Bo Dollis Jr & Billy Iuso - Lincoln Center, NYC 8/8/10


Glen David Andrews & Davell Crawford - Lincoln Center, NYC 8/8/10


Glen David Andrews - Lincoln Center, NYC 8/8/10



Soul Rebels - Lincoln Center, NYC 8/8/10



Soul Rebels - Lincoln Center, NYC 8/8/10


Soul Rebels - Lincoln Center, NYC 8/8/10


Soul Rebels - Lincoln Center, NYC 8/8/10


Soul Rebels - Lincoln Center, NYC 8/8/10


Glen David Andrews & Davell Crawford - Lincloln Center, NYC 8/8/10

In Pictures: Soul Rebels Brass Band feat. Davell Crawford @ Sullivan Hall

By Dino Perrucci Photography

Davell Crawford & Davis - Sullivan Hall, NYC 7/9/10



Soul Rebels - Sullivan Hall, NYC 7/9/10


Soul Rebels - Sullivan Hall, NYC 7/9/10


Soul Rebels w/Davell Crawford - Sullivan Hall, NYC 7/9/10

Upcoming: Soul Rebels feat. Davell Crawford @ Sullivan Hall tonight

Soul Rebels Brass Band w/ sp guest Davell Crawford
plus High & Mighty Brass Band
& Davis - The real Davis of HBO's "Treme"

Friday, Jul 09, 2010 8:00 PM (7:45 PM Doors)
@ Sullivan Hall

Upcoming: Soul Rebels Brass Band, High & Mighty Brass Band, DJ Davis @ Sullivan Hall