Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
As soon as Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue took the stage at 4:15 p.m. on Sunday, it was apparent that the crowd at LouFest 2014 was in for a treat. The six-piece band -- led by Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews and consisting of Joey Peebles on drums, Michael Ballard on bass, Pete Murano on guitar and Dan Oestreicher and Tim McFatter on baritone and tenor saxophones, respectively -- ripped through a set of music that sounded something like the funk-metal of One Hot Minute-era Red Hot Chili Peppers blended with the type of aggressive, muscular horn improvisations you might hear on an Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers record.
Despite having a nickname which might lead one to believe otherwise, Andrews doesn't just play trombone in Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue. Throughout the course of the hour-long set, the multi-instrumentalist spent nearly as much time singing as he did playing trombone, and even picked up a trumpet for one tune about halfway through the set. In addition to his musical prowess (the dude sounds like he was born with a horn on his lips), Andrews is impossibly charismatic, rarely letting ten minutes pass without getting the crowd in on some kind of call-and-response or other audience interaction.
As great as Andrews sounded, it was the band that backed him up that truly made the performance. All excellent musicians in their own right, the members of Orleans Avenue have been playing together for nearly a decade, and it shows. Peebles' drumming was metronomically precise, and so, so, so grooving. Murano's rhythm playing was meaty and full, and he shredded like a guitar-nerd's wet dream when the time came to take a solo. McFatter managed to squeeze notes out of a tenor saxophone that would make Maynard Ferguson cock an eyebrow, and Oestreicher's bari sound would most accurately be described as "nasty." Bassist Michael Ballard, however, stole the show. Ballard's powerful sound, impeccable taste, and unshakeable groove provided the foundation atop which the rest of the group could build their self-described "supafunkrock."
With their unlikely melding of disparate genres and liberal quoting of songs from across the pop music spectrum (at one even point mashing up Green Day's "Brain Stew" riff with the melodic hook from "I'm Still Fly"), Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue might be a little too campy for some, but Loufest's Sunday crowd seemed ready to follow this musical odyssey wherever Andrews and company led.
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