2 languages
Onward Brass Band
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
The name Onward Brass Band refers to two brass bands that were active in New Orleans for a long time. The first existed from around 1886 to 1930. In its early years it often played at picnics, festivals, parades and baseball games. Around 1887 it was led by cornettist Joseph Othello Lainez and soon became just as popular as the older Excelsior Brass Band and Pickwick Brass Band. After 1903 Manuel Perez took over the leadership. The group usually had ten to twelve players: three cornets or trumpets, two trombones, two clarinets, an alto horn, a baritone horn, a tuba, a snare drum and a bass drum. In the mid-1920s Perez changed the name to Imperial Brass Band. In 1930 the group ceased to exist.
Music and breakthrough
In 1960 Paul Barbarin and Louis Cottrell Jr. revived the name for an ensemble modelled on the old group. Barbarin led it until 1969, then Cottrell. After the latter's death in 1978 Placide Adams took over, until his own death in 2003. In 2005 the band was re-established. It made albums in 1965, 1974 and 2009, and consists of eight to ten players who strictly follow traditional brass band music. Members included Cag Cagnolatti, Kid Howard, Andrew Morgan, Joe Thomas, Louis Barbarin, Alvin Alcorn, Danny Barker and Freddie Kohlman. One recording is Last Journey of a Jazzman: The Funeral of Lester Santiago from 2004.
Influence
The Onward Brass Band stands for the music from which jazz in New Orleans grew: parades, funerals and parties, played by wind bands. That the name survived for a century shows how strongly that tradition lives in the city.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 2004Last Journey of a Jazzman: The Funeral of Lester Santiago
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- After Hours: Session 1NL Reader