{"id":2454907,"date":"2020-02-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-24T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=321374"},"modified":"2020-02-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-24T07:00:00","slug":"new-orleans-brass-band-the-soul-rebels-playing-mardi-gras-in-snowmass-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/new-orleans-brass-band-the-soul-rebels-playing-mardi-gras-in-snowmass-village\/","title":{"rendered":"New Orleans brass band The Soul Rebels playing Mardi Gras in Snowmass Village"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
The Soul Rebels will perform Tuesday afternoon at the annual Snowmass Mardi Gras Celebration.<\/strong>
Courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

It doesn\u2019t get more New Orleans than The Soul Rebels<\/a> \u2014 the explosive brass band who has defined and redefined the Crescent City sound for the past two decades.<\/p>\n

But on Fat Tuesday, the inventive eight-piece won\u2019t be on St. Charles Avenue watching the Zulu parade or at the Mardi Gras Day neighborhood parties that take over the city. They\u2019ll be slopeside in Snowmass Base Village, performing at the ski resort\u2019s 38th annual Mardi Gras celebration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love to be at home during Mardi Gras, but any chance we get to go out and play for different fans we love it,\u201d trumpeter Marcus Hubbard said in a recent phone interview.<\/p>\n

They did stick around New Orleans for the weekend to partake of the parades and revelry in their hometown, but are excited to get back on the road and continue the band\u2019s relatively recent breakout onto the national stage. They\u2019re coming off a big year that included performances with Katy Perry, a collaboration with the Wu-Tang Clan and the new album \u201cPoetry in Motion,\u201d released in October.<\/p>\n

For the past two decades, the Soul Rebels have played a legendary weekly bar show at Le Bon Temps Roule in Uptown New Orleans, where they\u2019ve solidified their hometown fanbase and refined their sound. Though they\u2019ve been touring nationally \u2014 and playing ski country \u2014 for years, it\u2019s still their home court.<\/p>\n

The new album includes the anthemic \u201cGreatness.\u201d If you watch ESPN, you\u2019ve definitely heard it as the ubiquitous theme song for the network\u2019s college basketball broadcasts this season. It\u2019s fitting that this is the Soul Rebels track reaching a global audience, as it is something of a Soul Rebels statement of purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think we\u2019ve been put on this Earth to do something great, no matter what obstacles are put in front of us,\u201d Hubbard said. \u201cAnd whatever craft people are doing, they have to strive to be the best. We wanted to create a song that would speak to that. I think that\u2019s what people are gravitating toward, because it\u2019s an anthem that pushes you to be the best that you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s among the 12 high-gear tracks on \u201cPoetry in Motion,\u201d the first full-length release from the band since 2012\u2019s \u201cUnlock Your Mind.\u201d Meticulously written and recorded over more than two years, \u201cPoetry in Motion\u201d marks a creative turn, spotlighting mostly songs with vocals from a diverse slate of collaborators rather than the signature brass instrumentals.<\/p>\n

It includes guest spots from New Orleans heavy-hitters like Big Freedia and Trombone Shorty and national figures Bon Iver\u2019s Sean Carey and new jazz trailblazer Robert Glasper.<\/p>\n

The prominent use of vocals and lyrics came after a band discussion about the limitations of instrumental-only tracks connecting with an audience on an album. After recent live collaborations with the likes of DMX, Nas, Talib Kweli and Metallica, they wanted some Soul Rebels songs for fans to sing along to.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe perform with a lot of guest MCs and we always have to perform their songs,\u201d said trumpeter Julian Gosin. \u201cSo we said, \u2018Going forward we want to perform our own songs. Those guest emcees can perform our songs and we can have crowds that know our songs.\u2019 That was the intention behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group started gigging around New Orleans in 1991. Brass bands, for generations, have been bubbling up from New Orleans neighborhoods and responding to the street culture and music of the moment. The Soul Rebels took cues from pop music and the New Orleans brass tradition \u2014 as the Dirty Dozen and Rebirth had before them \u2014 but the Soul Rebels also integrated hip-hop from the start.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time, hip-hop was really prevalent, so it was natural merging that into what we were already doing,\u201d Hubbard said. \u201cIn New Orleans brass bands, you have standard songs that you have to learn to be respected in that family of brass bands. But we always wanted to do what came natural to us. We weren\u2019t trying to be different, we were just trying to be who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival recently announced a 2020 performance from Soul Rebels with Wu-Tang Clan, a next step in the two groundbreaking bands\u2019 collaboration and the beginning of a summer tour. The band toured with Wu-Tang\u2019s GZA a few years ago and did a memorable NPR Tiny Desk Concert with the rapper, which led to live performances with Raekwon and then a backstage conversation with RZA about a full tour as the legendary Staten Island hip-hop group\u2019s backing band.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe relationship just kind of blossomed,\u201d Gosin explained.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an ideal match, he added. Since their early days, the Soul Rebels looked to Wu-Tang as a creative model for the way the sprawling group lets bandmembers shine individually and for the singular sound they created.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried to model the band after Wu-Tang, from a musical standpoint,\u201d Gosin said. \u201cThey came out and started a whole genre of hip-hop. That\u2019s the approach we\u2019ve taken in the brass band style \u2014 everybody being their own individual in the band and not being limited to one style or genre of music. We modeled that after Wu-Tang.\u201d<\/p>\n

Informed by the diverse tastes of its members, a Soul Rebels show might include funked-up New Orleans traditionals, a Hall & Oates or Kendrick Lamar cover along with their anthemic originals. It\u2019s been that way from the start.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a mixture of the band members, the kinds of music they love,\u201d Hubbard said. \u201cWe had to throw open the door for any element any of the guys want to add to the mix, to make our own quote-unquote gumbo. We\u2019ve been doing that ever since, sticking to who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

And they\u2019ve found that their sound travels well, meshing somehow with crowds in scenes as far-flung as this week\u2019s apr\u00e8s-ski show.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are firm believers that good music is going to translate wherever,\u201d Hubbard said. \u201cWe bring our energy and our vibe wherever we are, no matter what kind of crowd we are playing to.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there is one major difference playing above the clouds at 8,000 feet in Snowmass Village, Julian noted: \u201cI\u2019ll definitely have my oxygen tank this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

atravers@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Soul Rebels will perform Tuesday afternoon at the annual Snowmass Mardi Gras Celebration.Courtesy photo It doesn\u2019t get more New Orleans than The Soul Rebels \u2014 the explosive brass band who has defined and redefined the Crescent City sound for the past two decades. But on Fat Tuesday, the inventive eight-piece won\u2019t be on St. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2454907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 13:51:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2454907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454907\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2454907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2454907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2454907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}