Taking the music into the future with them
With its debut album, Brass-Hop, Coolbone
joins the quiet revolution that's taking place in urban music with the likes
of Erykah Badu and Maxwell. To understand Coolbone -- and, for that matter,
brass-hop, the group's unique amalgam of hip-hop and brass band jazz, just
consider its home base: New Orleans, a city famous for its multicultural
roots. Coolbone's sound encompasses the entire tradition of African-American
music, and then some. Trombonist Steve "Coolbone" Johnson, the group's founder
and leader, sums up brass-hop: "Coolbone brings in newer sounds, like funk,
hip-hop, soul, and freestyle rap, adds some blues and gospel and swing,
while keeping the main elements of traditional New Orleans music -- the
tuba, the horns, and the acoustic instrumentation. We take one of America's
oldest indigenous art forms and carry it forward into the 21st century."
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