Hot 8 Brass Band

Drawing on the traditional jazz heritage of their hometown of New Orleans, the Hot 8 Brass Band are renowned for including elements of funk, hip hop, rap, and its local variation, “bounce” in their music. The collective earned a win in the 64th Annual Grammy Awards 2022 for their feature on John Batiste’s ‘Album of The Year’, following the nomination of their ‘The Life & Times Of…’ LP for ‘Best Regional Roots Album’ in 2013.

Transcending genres and trends, Hot 8 have performed and collaborated with the likes of Jon Batiste, Blind Boys of Alabama, Basement Jaxx and Alice Russell, and provided live support for Mos Def, Lauryn Hill and Mary J Blige. Since forming they have established a decade-long affiliation with actor/BBC 6Music DJ Craig Charles, among other tastemakers, DJs and journalists worldwide. After a festive appearance Live at Maida Vale for Lauren Laverne (BBC 6 Music), the Hot 8 Brass Band performed for Jools Holland’s annual Hootenanny on BBC Two to welcome in 2019. Later that year, after taking to the stage at the BRIT awards in February, Hot 8 Brass Band were invited on the European leg of George Ezra’s tour.

The New Orleans-based Hot 8 Brass Band draw on the traditional jazz heritage of their hometown, alongside more modern styles, including elements of funk, hip hop, rap, and its local variation, “bounce.” The collective earned a win in the 64th Annual Grammy Awards 2022 for their feature on John Batiste’s ‘Album of The Year’, following the nomination of ‘The Life & Times Of…’ for ‘Best Regional Roots Album’ in 2013.

Transcending genres and trends, Hot 8 have performed and collaborated with the likes of Jon Batiste, Blind Boys of Alabama, Basement Jaxx and Alice Russell, and provided live support for Mos Def, Lauryn Hill and Mary J Blige. Since forming they have established a decade-long affiliation with actor/BBC 6Music DJ Craig Charles, among other tastemakers, DJs and journalists worldwide. After a festive appearance Live at Maida Vale for Lauren Laverne (BBC 6 Music), the Hot 8 Brass Band performed for Jools Holland’s annual Hootenanny on BBC Two to welcome in 2019. Later that year, after taking to the stage at the BRIT awards in February, Hot 8 Brass Band were invited on the European leg of George Ezra’s tour.

With multiple sell-out shows at London’s Roundhouse and Brighton’s Dome, Hot 8 continues to share their acclaimed releases. Albums such as ‘Vicennial…’, ‘On The Spot’ and ‘Take Cover’, are brought to the stage, honoring their city’s musical traditions, while forging their own powerful legacy. Mixing an old-school street brass approach with funkier currents and hip hop vocals, Hot 8’s magnificent originals are juxtaposed with fresh versions of Snoop Dogg, Stevie Wonder, The Specials and of course their anthemic take on Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing”.

The recent passing of Bennie Pete, the beloved co-founder and sousaphone player for the outfit, was honored in true New Orleans fashion with ‘The Bossman Tour 2023’, paying tribute to his “galvanizing force” as a “leader, teacher, and mentor”. Fellow bandmates added that “Bennie was an inspiration to [the] band and to many other musicians, and the entire musical and cultural community.” The dates celebrated the late Bennie’s “greatest wish… that New Orleans culture lives on for future generations”. This parade followed the success of the Mardi Gras 2020 and ‘Take Cover’ 2019 tours.

In 2024, the band will hit the road again for the “Big Tuba Tour,” featuring dates across the West Coast of the United States.

HISTORY OF HOT 8 BRASS BAND 

Inspired early by the music of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Rebirth Brass Band, original bandleader Bennie Pete worked to bring together members of two existing bands at Fortier High School – the Looney Tunes Brass Band and the High Steppers Brass Band – to form Hot 8 Brass Band in 1995. They gained local recognition playing on the streets of their hometown, in Second Line Parades and at traditional Jazz funerals. Cutting their teeth by playing mainly pop/soul cover versions and traditional pieces, they also developed a repertoire of original material.

The release of their first album ‘Rock With The Hot 8’ was impeded by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 as the lives of all band members were heavily impacted and the band’s career progression was put on hold. During this time, Bennie Pete and his bandmembers used their music to support and rally the displaced community, via various charity and community initiatives.  

In 2007, multi-instrumentalist and producer Quantic picked up on Hot 8 Brass Band’s cover of “Sexual Healing”. Playing it live at a DJ set in New York, the track gained an unprecedented round of applause and Quantic sent it to Paul Jonas and Robert Luis at Tru Thoughts Records in Brighton, UK. The pair travelled to New Orleans with the intention of meeting and signing the band, beginning a long and ongoing partnership between band and label that started with a reissue of ‘Rock With The Hot 8’.

The success of ‘Rock With The Hot 8’ – including the band’s renowned cover of “Sexual Healing”, as well as the Snoop Dogg cover “What’s My Name (Rock With The Hot 8)” – paved the way for the band’s second album ‘The Life & Times Of.. The Hot 8 Brass Band’. Released in late 2012, the LP was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Regional Roots Music Album. The first in a two-part set of albums, it was closely followed by sister release ‘Tombstone’ in 2013. Hot 8 Brass Band celebrated their 20th anniversary in 2015 with the release of ‘Vicennial’, featuring raucous cover versions and original numbers. This milestone release gained positive coverage from high-profile publications including The Sunday Times, Independent On Sunday, Songlines and Metro. 

In 2017, Hot 8 Brass Band celebrated the live music of New Orleans, with a studio album that focused on capturing the spontaneous live energy of their street performances. Gaining the band further media recognition from The Guardian and The Australian, the release followed a sold-out show at London’s Roundhouse and an appearance at Glastonbury Festival. Their midday opening of the West Holts stage attracted the largest crowd in the stage’s history. They went on to play other large festivals and outdoor events including Fuji Rock, Roskilde and WOMAD. 

In 2017, Hot 8 Brass Band celebrated the live music of New Orleans, with a studio album that focused on capturing the spontaneous live energy of their street performances. Gaining the band further media recognition from The Guardian and The Australian, the release followed a sold-out show at London’s Roundhouse and an appearance at Glastonbury Festival. Their midday opening of the West Holts stage attracted the largest crowd in the stage’s history. They went on to play other large festivals and outdoor events including Fuji Rock, Roskilde and WOMAD. 

HOT 8 BRASS BAND AND NEW ORLEANS 

Hot 8 Brass Band’s rhythms are loose-limbed and hard-hitting, with most tracks featuring a sousaphone prominently. This frequently sets up and maintains short rhythmic and melodic grooves that dominate with rippling authority the band’s recordings. The legendary group have established themselves as a dominant force on New Orleans streets—the band you want to dance behind during a Sunday second-line parade or witness at a jazz funeral.

Brass band-related activities have been a vital part of New Orleans’ African American community life for over a century, serving as an important source of celebration, bonding, strength, pride, and both individual and collective expression. Jazz funerals are among the most curious and well-known New Orleans brass band customs.  As an exercise of the belief in “rejoicing at death,” the jazz funeral juxtaposes grief and joy. Slow, sad hymns and dirges are played en route to the cemetery, followed by up-tempo songs and joyous second line dancing in a final procession away from the grave.

The city’s traditional obsession with music, parades, dancing and the rise of black benevolent organizations, has helped to maintain and support brass band activities and culture. Dozens of benevolent societies and groups known as “social aid & pleasure clubs” sponsor weekly Sunday parades. Very different from New Orleans’ better-known Eurocentric Mardi Gras parades, the black social club events consist of three main parts: divisions of colorfully dressed social club members, one or more brass bands and the second line—a crowd of up to several thousand people who follow and dance alongside the parade throughout its several-hour duration. The free-form second line dance performed by club members and the crowd, both of whom dance with umbrellas and handkerchiefs, is derived from West African processions. The intensity that builds from the constant creative interaction between hot music and improvised dancing, often erupts into a euphoric dimension in which a sense of total freedom, equality, limitless power, and a spiritual redefining of earthly reality, seem to overtake all of the participants. Many legendary and influential musicians who would migrate from New Orleans by the 1920s and influence the direction of American music—among them King Oliver, Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet—got some of their early training and experience in street parades and funerals. 

The story of the Hot 8 Brass Band has been one of tragedy and triumph. Over the years the Hot 8’s ranks have been decimated by the tragic deaths of four original members due to street violence and illness, as well as the devastating loss of founding member Bennie Pete in 2021 due to complications from sarcoidosis and Covid-19. The devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was a life-altering turning point – during which 80% of New Orleans flooded, untold numbers of inhabitants died and long-term displacement and misery affected hundreds of thousands – and raised real concerns about the survival of the city and its indigenous cultural traditions. After being evacuated, displaced and scattered across the country, the band regrouped and began touring the United States to encourage and support other displaced Katrina victims and promote New Orleans’ recovery. 

Hot 8’s incredible tale, which comes across in their life-affirming and powerful music, has also previously featured in Spike Lee’s two New Orleans documentaries, When The Levees Broke and The Creek Don’t Rise, and David Simon’s HBO series Treme (in which the band played themselves), to add to extensive features across the world’s media.