Despite being only 24, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews has played professionally for 20 years. As a longtime member of Lenny Kravitz’s band and a frequent Galactic collaborator, the trombonist has packed rooms around the world and performed on some of the festival circuit’s biggest stages. Now, Trombone Shorty is steeping out under his own name with his band Orleans Avenue, playing a mix of funk, jazz, hip hop, rock, jam and brass music he describes as Supafunkrock. The group recently entered the studio with Galactic saxophonist Ben Ellman to complete its first album, Backatown, and has spent the past six months converting new fans a festivals ranging from Jam Cruise to Bonnaroo. After a successful season playing himself in the HBO series Treme, Trombone Shorty catches up with Jambands.com about his recent success, goals for Orleans Avenue and how he ended up in the studio with members of U2 and Green Day.
Despite being only 24 you have been gigging out for over 20 years. When did you start playing professionally?
I have a bunch of family members that played in almost every brass band in the city and my brother James Andrews had a band. They used to practice at my mom’s house and would leave a bunch of instruments around and those would be my toys. I would go climb inside of a saxophone or tuba and the trombone. I think at the time the trombone was the only instrument that was actually working, and I was able to find some notes on it. My mom and my brother let me stick with it so I started playing. It was taller than I was which is how I got the name. By the time I was 7 years old my brother felt comfortable enough to add me as a part of his band and took me around the world. I played different festivals, and I got paid for it. He trusted me enough to grow and learn from him. And he had me side by side with him and that’s when I started playing professionally.
What was his band called?
The name of his band was James Andrews’ All Star Brass Band. He still plays sometimes around town. He’ll do a bunch of private things but he switched the band up from a brass band to more of a stage band in the last couple years. I still jam out with him sometimes.
Before you started playing under your own name you were best known as one of Lenny Kravitz’s sidemen. Lenny also plays on your solo album. How did that relationship develop?
We have a mutual friend named Sidney Torres and Lenny called him to ask if he knew any New Orleans horn players. I think I was 18 or 19 years old at the time. Lenny got my name from Sidney and called me up. He said, “How soon can you get out here?” and he flew me out like two hours after the phone call. I went out to Miami and I played for him. I thought I was just doing a couple of gigs, I didn’t know that I was going to join the band. I had to learn 20 years of material overnight. It was a great experience because we had to learn things just like they are on the record. Being from New Orleans and being heavily influenced by improvisation, I never really tackled things that way. So just being able to focus on one part and get it exactly right was a great mind-blowing experience for me. And I brought that experience back to my band and everything took off from there.
When did you first go out under your own name and perform?
When I was with my brother we all used to play in Jackson Square, I was the youngest person in his band and, by the time I was ten, I had my own band. We did the things I had learned with my brother. I put together a group of young musicians and I had Trombone Shorty’s Brass Band in Jackson Square. We used to play for tips in the street. Over time I got a bunch of A-list musicians and older musicians to play with me because I was getting a bunch of gigs by myself, doing different things—different conventions and the like. I started thinking that I should develop some younger cats and start writing my own music so I put together Orleans Avenue and we’ve been playing since.
When you initially put Orleans Avenue together did you envision the group playing your now trademark brand of Supafunkrock?
When I put the band together we were just doing what we were taught—we were doing a bunch of New Orleans standards and some jazz standards. Over time we developed into who were are now, and we just wanted to create our own style of music and not continue to do what’s done for all those years because we didn’t feel like we were helping the music by recycling it. Each one of my band members is influenced by different styles of music and a different cultural background, and we just all put what we’re influenced with and we came up with the sound naturally. It just shaped up on its own.
In New Orleans everything is like a gumbo so I was influenced by everything. I would spend a lot of time with Cyril Neville from the Neville Brothers, and I was influenced by that style of music by being around him. I was trained in jazz and had Rebirth Brass Band around as well. Then I would listen to KISS and Rush and all those different people. I was always trying to put my headphones on and trying to find a way to play over that style of music when I was younger. And my brother was really heavy into rap music so I would take his CDs. My other brother, Buster, he’s into that type of stuff so it is all a gumbo of music I was influenced by.
Your new album Backatown was produced by Ben Ellman and many of our readers first heard your name through your sit ins with his band Galactic. When did you first start working with Ben?
I’ve been listening to Galactic since I was probably 12 years old. I’ve known Ben longer than that—he used to play with the Little Rascals Brass Band which is a band that was based out of my neighborhood. He was the only white cat in the band. I worked on the last two Galactic records, and I liked what he had done. So by just listening to the albums and where they are now, I thought that Ben would be a great choice—he comes from the jamband circuit with the improvisation but he found a way to still make a good record for Galactic. I just thought that he would be the right person. He knows what I’m about and he’s right in New Orleans.
Backatown features a number of different guests. Can you talk a little about how these collaborations came about?
I got Lenny involved when I went down to play on his upcoming record. I did a bunch of songs for him, and I was listening to my record at his house in the Bahamas to hear the mix. He asked who I was listening to, and I was like “That’s me.” He liked the songs, and said he’d help me out, which was a true blessing.
Allen Toussaint plays on the only cover on the record, which is actually one of his songs. We changed it so much that I was afraid that he wouldn’t like it. I was still on tour with my band, so Ben actually met with him in New Orleans and got him to play the piano and sent the track to me. And Allen liked the song and liked what we’d done with it so he got on the record. He called and was like, “Man that sounds good, you brought it up to date, got a nice groove to it.”
Marc Broussard is a good friend of mine. The song that we did with him, “Right to Complain,” just sounded like I need him on there. It put me in the mind of him and I called him and sent him the files and he sent them back and that was it.
I wanted to work with people that I liked that I always looked up to—my mentors, artists that I’m a fan of. So my wish list came together. They’re the founders. It’s just a blessing to have somebody that has paved the way for some of the younger musicians in New Orleans to do what we’re doing. For Allen to be on the song that he wrote a long time ago, I mean, it’s just amazing. I’m honored that he played on the record and played on his own song. It makes it that much more interesting.
A whole new crop of bands seem to be emerging from New Orleans and mixing traditional brass band music with more modern sounds.
Definitely. I have a friend named Chris Royal. He’s a saxophonist and his band is smoking and of course there is Big Sam and different people. They’re really taking it to a different level. And I’m not here as much so I don’t really know what’s on the scene ‘til I get down there, but those two bands. Plus there’s the Soul Rebels, they’re eating it up out there.
Frenchmen Street is a different scene after the storm so there’s all these new musicians and I don’t even know a bunch of them. But they’re just out there playing in the streets, playing in the clubs. It’s like a new wave of younger musicians, younger than me, that’s just out there getting it in and just taking over, just making the scene with it. They’re making the scene. I mean I walk down the street and there’s a bunch of musicians on the scene that I’ve never even met before and I’m like, “Wow.” And they’re sounding good, man, I don’t think some of the bands even have a name, they’re just jamming out on the street. I told some of them, “Man, you know whenever y’all ready, I’m playing a show in town and we have some openings, you know, I’d love to get you all out there because people need to hear y’all.” Yeah, I mean Frenchman Streets—these bands are out there every weekend. I’ve seen some bands set up outside a club and play on the street with their little tip jar at ten o’clock at night and I can imagine what it’s going to be like for the Jazz Fest. You’re gonna have hundreds of people outside, nobody’s probably going to go in the clubs.
You recently performed on Dr. John’s version of Randy Newman’s “Down in New Orleans.” The song was featured in Disney’s The Princess and the Frog and was nominated for an Oscar. Can you tell us a little about that project.
It is funny. I was on tour and we were somewhere in Colorado. I got a bunch of text messages from people saying, “We are watching you on TV at the Oscars.” I replied, “I’m asleep, I’m not there” but they showed a video that I am in which is great. I have to give all thanks to Dr. John, a good friend of mine. He called me to be on the session, and I did it with him. He’s the one who’s responsible for putting it all together, Dr. John. It was done in New Orleans at the Music Shed. It was during Jazz Fest last year. And Doc called me up and I went down there and we did it. I remember watching a cartoon screen, and it was my first time experiencing watching the cartoon character playing the trombone, and I tried to match what he was doing which was really fun and really cool. It was just like the black and white sheets of pages moving on the screen. I actually forgot what the session was for until it came out and then it all clicked.
Though you have collaborated with numerous musicians, the most high profile are probably U2 and Green Day. You played with them at the opening of the Super Dome after Katrina and recorded a benefit single with members of both groups in the studio. But Bono had been a longtime fan of your music, correct?
I think Edge and Bono saw me play when I was 12. They came to a little club down in Treme, and I was able to jump in and play a little bit. And they were dancing and different things. That’s what they remember. And a good friend of mine, Bob Ezrin , he was the one who anchored the whole thing for me to be able to play and meet with U2 and Green Day, both of whom are big fans of New Orleans music. [Pink Floyd/KISS] producer Bob Ezrin put it together. I was actually in London doing a tour with my band in England, all over and last day I was able to go to Abbey Road studio and sit down with Green Day, Bob Ezrin, U2 and Rick Rubin. And we were all sitting down at the table and I was like ‘Whoa, we are at Abbey Road Studio and people are outside like snapping pictures.” We all talked about the whole thing, the grand reopening of the Super Dome and we talked a little bit, discussed it and next thing you know I got home, they called me and said it was a go. And we were able to get some other New Orleans musicians on it such as the Rebirth Brass Band, the New Birth Brass Band, and we were able to play and reopen the Super Dome. We were able to do it with two of the biggest bands in the world right now.
How did you first meet Bob Ezrin?
He comes down to Jazz Fest and different things and he is the one who put it together. I forgot how we met but he put it together. I talk to him every couple of weeks. We check in on each other but he’s the one who put it together. I think he was hanging out at the jazz festival with Quint Davis, and we just clicked and we’ve been talking ever since. And he checks in on me, keeps up with what I’m doing, give me some pointers and different things. He’s the one who put it all together. I can’t even remember how we met, you know, it’s one of those things.
