Saturday, June 22, 2019

Hot 8 Brass Band concert review

Last night I went to see the Hot 8 Brass Band at the Cumberland Stage at the Toronto Jazz Festival. Two years ago this stage was in the street. The setup this year is not accessible. I found a festival staff member and after I yelled at him, we figured out a way that I could see the band. I know the festival did not set up the stage. That was done by the Bloor Yorkville BIA. But they should know better. At a free venue, they need to have a spot near the stage for wheelchairs because the audience is standing and we can't stand. And here there were steps when there should have been a ramp. His response was "Well, you can still hear the music". And I said not only is that not good enough for me but it shouldn't be good enough for you. That put a sheepish look on his face. They need to smarten up. Then he helped me find a spot where I could see the band. The Hot 8 Brass Band is a modern version of a traditional New Orleans brass band. They are similar to bands like Dirty Dozen or Rebirth except I think Hot 8 integrates more funk elements. You may have seen them in Spike Lee's 2006 HBO doc When The Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts and the HBO series Treme. The band gained a lot of fans with their 2007 cover of Marvin Gaye's Sexual Healing. It's serious party music. And this is a band that have been through a lot including Katrina and the deaths of four members. And yet the band energy is joyous and infectious. The leader and one of the founders of Hot 8 is tuba player Bennie "Big Peter" Pete. He also writes a lot of the arrangements. Add bass drummer and also a founder Harry "Swamp Thang" Cook and snare drummer Derrick Tabb and a great horn section and things get funky very quickly. So I enjoyed them. Ninety minutes went very quickly. Their latest CD Take Cover was released Feb. 2019. I have two more concerts I am going to and I will review them too.
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