Troy Andrews, famous by the name of “Trombone Shorty,” is one of New Orleans’ current youngest and finest musicians. A professional musician, a trombonist and a band leader only by the age of six earned him his nick name Trombone Shorty. Troy was born on January 2, 1986 in the same city where jazz music was born, the great city New Orleans.

Troy Andrews as a child played in brass bands and through lots of music exposure since very young he has gained more than enough experience. By the time he reached age 24, his own and most successful album “Backatown” was nominated for a Grammy award for “Best Contemporary Jazz Album 2011.”

Trombone Shorty Playing with Wynton Marsalis at the Age of 13

Backatown was a great success for Trombone Shorty and his band Orleans Avenue. It was produced by Ben Ellman, Galactic’s own saxophonist. Galactic is known to be one of the top funk and fusion bands world wide; where also Trombone Shorty has played, recorded and performed live with them for several times, which is also a great achievement of his. Andrew’s music in general features a very powerful contemporary style jazz, that is full of energy and surprises along the way, he himself said” “We never sat down and really thought about concepts and what we wanted our music to sound like,” Andrew continued “It’s just that, over the years, we allowed each one of the band members to bring their influences and taste in music into our music. Anything we hear or are influenced by, it naturally comes out in what we’re trying to do. It’s just our sound, and it happened naturally.” In this special kind of  jazz music the perfect combination for it being jazz music full of improvisation and at the same time representing different personalities and genres into one musical piece, is what makes it sound different and unique than for example standard jazz, in the world of contemporary jazz one can just never know what to expect, and Trombone Shorty and the Orleans Avenue are a good demonstrates of such music.

Trombone Shorty Playing one of his tracks from “Backatown” 2011 (Observe Breathing Circulation Technique On The Trumpet)

Troy is always on the move with Orleans Avenue, touring the world with their energetic music. Troy on stage tends to have an outstanding stage presence and performance, that has a very passionate expression, filled with energetic love of music, and regularly he always urges to push it to the limit every single show, Trombone Shorty could one day be the new Miles Davis with his passion but on the trombone, though Troy is also a master of the trumpet and often uses it in a fair number of his songs. 

Troy so far has recorded 8 studio albums, the latest being “For True” that was released in 2011 and the first entitled “Trombone Shorty’s Swingin’ Gate” released in 2002, but his album “Backatown” still remains his most successful record.

One would have not expected less from a young musician born, raised and influenced by the amazing music sounds of New Orleans, the great city that still continues to produce outstanding jazz musicians, and prove to the generations of the present and the future that jazz music did not die after Miles Davis or Louis Armstrong or many others and the jazz music legacy continues on and it will live on to take new shapes into each generation.

Image credit: Laura Carbone via Tromboneshorty.com

The article The Not So Shorty Trombone Shorty appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

The world-famous jazz trumpet and saxhorn player Paolo Fresu celebrated his 50 birthday with 50 concerts throughout Sardinia, a beautiful Italian island in the heart of Mediterranean Sea, invading it with the light sound and soft words of jazz music in the warm summer atmosphere.

From June 12 to July 31 he played every evening for a self-planned and directed tour, changing places, performances and partners day by day. A full immersion of jazz music in the most uncontaminated and wild areas of the island. An actual collection of fascinating places full of mystery, culture, magic and history.

Arts and culture join nature in the total respect of environment. Indeed, all the energy needed for the stage was provided by an ecological electrical generator, supplied through solar panels exposed to the day light before any concert. The intention was to create a relationship between music and landscape, promoting renewable energy and trying to sensitize public awareness of environmental issues.

The sound of Fresu’s trumpet re-echoed around green mountains, mines, archeological areas, accompanied by several musicians, actors, writers, orchestras from all around the world. Just to mention some of these musicians, Ralph Towner from Washington U.S., Richard Galliano from France, Omar Sosa from Cuba, Enrico Rava from Italy, Dave Douglas from New York U.S., Eivind Aarset from Norway, Glenn Ferris from Los Angeles U.S., Dhafer Youssef from Tunisia, Ludovico Einaudi from Italy, Nguyén Lé from France, and Uri Caine from Philadelphia U.S.

!50 music tour offered to all jazz lovers a special gift made by music, nature and culture. Words and music merged in an explosion of warm sounds and surreal atmospheres. And all for free, in fact there was no ticket to pay , only passion and taste for good jazz music were needed. The concerts performances were also available on live streaming.

The “sleepless trumpeter”, as Fresu is being called for his incessant musical activity – more than 300 recorded albums and 2500 concerts up to present -, never stops surprising his fans and his island with his skill as an artist and his simplicity as a man.

Paolo Fresu was born in Berchidda, a small village in north Sardinia. He started playing trumpet at the age of 11 and after different musical experiences in 1980 he began his jazz career. Nowadays he is one of the most appreciated and popular European jazzman. Since the ‘80s he has won several awards as best jazz musician in different countries, such as the prestigious Django d’Or in France. In 2005 he was one of the nominees for the Latin Grammy Awards of Santa Monica, California.

Over the last 30 years he has performed all over the world with a wide set of international artists such as John Zorn, Dave Holland, Gil Evans, John Abercrombie, Trilok Gurtu, John Taylor, Palle Danielsson, Jon Christensen, Gerry Mulligan, David Liebman, Kenny Wheeler, Richard Beirach, Jim Hall, Helen Merril, Ralph Towner, Richard Galliano, Michel Portal, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Jeanne Lee, Gunther Schüller, Paul McCandless, Toots Thielemans, Andy Sheppard, and many more.

There is not much more to say about this great jazzman, his music can speak better than thousands of words.

!50 Paolo Fresu & Uri Caine video

The article Paolo Fresu’s !50: a Tour of Jazz and Renewable Energy appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.