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Eureka Brass Band

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

The Eureka Brass Band was a brass band from New Orleans that was active from 1920 to 1975. The trumpeter Willie Wilson founded the group. Its early members included the clarinettists Willie Parker, John Casimir and George Lewis and the cornettist Kid Rena. The line-up varied, usually from nine to eleven musicians, and generally consisted of three trumpets, two trombones, two reeds, a tuba, a snare drum and a bass drum. In the 1930s Wilson fell ill, and after 1937 the sousaphonist Joseph Red Clark briefly took over. Dominique T-Boy Remy followed, and later Percy Humphrey.

Music and breakthrough

The band recorded extensively for, among others, Atlantic Records, Pax, Alamac, Folkways, Jazzology and Sounds of New Orleans. The album New Orleans Parade from 1951 features Humphrey with trombonists Charles Sunny Henry and Albert Warner, among others, and in 1962 the album Jazz at Preservation Hall, Vol. 1 appeared on Atlantic, with Humphrey, his brother, the clarinettist Willie Humphrey, and the trumpeters Kid Sheik Cola and Pete Bocage. Although the group broke up after 1975, Humphrey sometimes revived the name for festivals and other appearances.

Influence

The Eureka Brass Band played the tradition of the New Orleans street band, which made music for parades and funerals. Such bands were a source of early jazz, and this group kept that old way of playing alive for decades, with several melodic lines at once above a solid march rhythm.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Just a Little While to Stay Here and notice how the brass play one song together and how the snare drum and bass drum provide the march rhythm. Can you also hear individual voices playing in between?

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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See also

Categories: ArtistsMarch music and brass bands