Good Trouble Brass Band

Our Schedule at HONK!Fest 2026

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 19:30:38 -0700

Good Trouble Brass Band is pleased to join 30+ street bands from around the country for the 21st annual HONK! Festival in Somerville and Cambridge.

For complete festival details: www.honkfest.org

OUR SCHEDULE:

Friday, October 9, 6:30 PM

Lantern Parade, departing from and returning to La Connexion, 149 Broadway, East Somerville

We are the SLSAPSBB and we play cross-cultural music in the Second Line Style, developed by Black musicians in New Orleans. We’d like to share Professor Longhair‘s (aka Henry Roeland »Roy« Byrd) ”Go to the Mardi Gras“ with you!

I think Professor Longhair is a noteworthy figure in our musical tradition, whose personal history highlights why SLBB should celebrate Black musicianship routinely. He pioneered a lot of musical devices, some from from Cuban music and some developed out of necessity because his instrument didn’t have all of its keys, as well as acted as a family support for other Black musicians he played with. While his music and performances intersected different cultures that bridged racial divides during segregation and beyond, he struggled to get acclaim amongst white audiences despite his many noteworthy contributions to the American musical canon. I am not sure how to share these histories, but I think they could lend themselves to a gig working for racial justice, economic justice or simply expand on an informative intro/aside about the band.

I also wanted to share a memory story I tell myself to remember the lyrics: Our story begins with the Zulu King, who is already at a Mardi Gras party. The party is a lot like Porch Fest or Honk! and is a triple decker house affair. He goes out to the porch to see who else is playing, when he notices a parade go past the party. He resolves to get to Rampart and Dumain and play with the band. Anyone who hears this musical story, is going to buy a ticket to New Orleans.

Written by: @m1_ch4

📷 The Associated Press 1973Go

For the Love of Money

Wed, 24 Nov 2021 18:15:34 -0800

Contrary to what the lyrics may suggest ("money, money, money, money!"), the song that we play by Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff, Anthony Jackson, and, Joe Tarsia--For the Love of Money--is actually about not exploiting money or letting it go to your head. The O'Jays were up-and-coming artists when they came up with the tune, but thought
carefully about how financial success fit in with their ethics and religious beliefs.

e: songfacts.com

Photo: "Leon Huff (left) and Kenny Gamble in 1970, in the early days of their legendary partnership." Photograph by Charlie Gillett Collection/Redferns/Getty Images

African Market Place/The Homecoming Song medley

Wed, 08 Dec 2021 08:11:35 -0800

Giving credit: Abdullah Ibrahim (b. 1934, and formerly known as Dollar Brand) is a brilliant South African pianist and composer from Cape Town. We play a medley of two of his tunes: "African Marketplace" and "The Homecoming Song", both from his amazing 1980 album "African Marketplace".

Wikipedia sez: "Ibrahim is considered the leading figure in the subgenre of Cape jazz. Within jazz, his music particularly reflects the influence of Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington. He is known especially for 'Mannenberg', a jazz piece that became a notable anti-apartheid anthem." Ibrahim was in exile in the U.S. and Europe until the early 1990s.

We appreciate Ibrahim's amazing amalgamation of different musics, including South African marabi and mbaqanga, and American jazz, and in particular salute his activist opposition to apartheid.

Here is his website: Read More

Canaan Land

Sat, 29 Jan 2022 09:34:07 -0800

Attribution time! This month we’re focusing on Canaan Land - a traditional spiritual that’s been sung throughout history to call attention to the struggles of Black people. The concept of “Canaan” has been used since biblical times to refer to the concept of the Promised land, a place where folks could be free from oppression. During the Civil Rights movement in the 60s, the lyrics were changed in some interpretations to “Freedom land”, as well. Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon writes, “One word, ‘freedom,’ documents the time period. One would not have been able to sing freedom during the time when slavery was an integral part of this country. By the twentieth century, the 1960s, we had cleared enough space with our living and struggling and dying and going on that, no matter what, we could say and sing: ‘I want my freedom now!’.”

Our arrangement of this song is based on a version originally recorded by Mahalia Jackson, pictured here.

Grazin' in the Grass

Sun, 27 Feb 2022 09:34:09 -0800

Today, we’re honoring the history of “Grazing in the Grass,” originally recorded by Hugh Masekela (1939 - 2018), a legendary South African jazz trumpeter and an anti-apartheid activist who lived in exile for much of his life. Masekela moved to the US in the early 60s, where he remained outspoken against South African apartheid as well as the oppression of Black Americans.

When creating “Grazing in the Grass,” Masekela and composer Philemon Hou found inspiration (for both its tune and its title) from the song “Mr. Bull no. 4,” which Masekela first heard in Zambia. Masekela’s joyful 1968 instrumental quickly soared to #1 on the US Billboard charts.

The lyrics we know today came later, from the American pop quartet The Friends of Distinction, who added vocals in their popular 1969 version: “I can dig it, he can dig it, she can dig it, we can dig it, they can dig it, you can dig it…”

Since then, many bands have played versions of Grazing in the Grass, including Rebirth Brass Band and Jack Brass Band (and us!) We thank Hugh Masekala for his...Read More

La Misma Canción

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 15:51:11 -0700

Time to recognize: La Misma Canción, by Ozomatli (track 12 off their self-titled debut studio album from June 16, 1998). Ozomatli is a long-standing L.A.-based band
that creates music described by The Vogue as “a notorious
urban-Latino-and-beyond collision of hip hop and salsa, dancehall and
cumbia, samba and funk, merengue and comparsa, East LA R&B and New
Orleans second line, Jamaican ragga and Indian ragga— has long followed a
key mantra: it will take you around the world by taking you around
L.A.”

When asked for the background of the song, Raul Pacheco of Ozomatli replied via email, “This song is a simple acknowledgement and reminder of our basic and sometimes overlooked connection to the earth. It is a shout claiming we are all from the same source, and therefore much more connected to each other than different. It is a call to walk and act with that connection in our consciousness.

The chorus is a question and also an acknowledgement of how our political systems often divide us or choose profit over people and the land we live on and
share. That reality is sobering, but it is still worth reminding
ourselves of our basic shared connection.”

The Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band is careful to make their very best attempt at the Spanish lyrics (pasted below with English translation of
first verse underneath), which are a bit fast for most of us to
pronounce! But we try.

Mi madre, mi padre también son de la tierra (tierra)
[My mother, and also my father, are from the earth]
y todos que estamos de aquí también somos de la tierra (tierra)
[and all of us who are also here are from the earth]
todo juntos también somos de la tierra (tierra)
[everyone together here is from the earth]
y todos que no son de aquí también somos de la tierra (tierra)
[all who are not from here are also from the earth]
y por que...Read More

Never Gonna Let You Go

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 18:54:19 -0700

One of the songs in our book that we’ve played for years is Never Gonna Let You Go. It is not the hit pop tune by Sergio Mendez, but the one that features trombones, as its origins are from a trombone shout band that played for the United House of Prayer for all People.

This Pentecostal denomination was founded in Massachusettsin 1919, by a Cape Verdean, da Graca, and has spread primarily throughoutSoutheastern USA to its current peak of 145 churches. Their services include performancesby “shout bands” that are mostly composed of brass instruments, especially featuring a large number of trombones. Shout bands rarely perform outside the House of Prayer.

The style of music, with musicians improvising over rhythmicphrases played by the rest of the band, is deeply rooted in African Americanmusic. It is made up of phrases that musicians already know, that are collaged together, often with call and response sections. There is little distinction between performers and audience in the shout band performances as the congregation will sing, dance, and pray while the band is playing.

It wasn’t clear in my research which band composed the song,maybe it was simply the house band of the House of Prayer, but the shout band whoserecording I found is Madison’s Lively Stones.

https://www.allmusic.com/song/never-going-to-let-you-go-mt0030432924 Never

Hurricane Season

Sun, 29 May 2022 18:19:37 -0700

Trombone Shorty (born Troy Andrews on January 2, 1986) is one of the amazing young millennial generation of New Orleans musicians bringing fresh energy to the city’s music scene and the world. His tune Hurricane Season is one of our reed section favorites because our arrangement switches it up to feature reeds over brass.

As a child, Andrews was surrounded by musicians in his family and community and started playing trombone in his Treme neighborhood when he was a toddler. At age four he played on the stage with Bo Diddley during the 1990 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and by six he was leading his own band!

Besides being a trombone and trumpet player, and band leader, Andrews is also a producer, actor and philanthropist. The Trombone Shorty Foundation grew out of his Horns For Schools Project through which Andrews personally donated high quality musical instruments to New Orleans schools. The Foundation's mission is "to preserve and perpetuate the unique musical culture of New Orleans by passing down its traditions to future generations of musicians”, and now also supports a music academy where students follow a music performance and business curriculum.

Thank you Trombone Shorty for your music and for your work to preserve the musical heritage of New Orleans!

By and By

Mon, 22 Aug 2022 15:30:12 -0700

Next in our series honoring the origins of the music we play is Charles Albert Tindley.
Born in Maryland in 1851 as a son to a slave and a freewoman, Tindley
taught himself to read and write and worked jobs here and there before
eventually enrolling in correspondence courses from the Boston School of
Theology. After becoming ordained in the Methodist ministry, he served
at a few different appointments before, in 1902, he became the minister
at the Calvary Methodist Church (where he had been employed as a janitor
25 years prior!) With him as minister, the congregation experienced a
great deal of growth, leading to the church being renamed Tindley Temple
Methodist Church (despite Tindley’s protests) upon construction of a
new building.

Gospel music historian and professor of music Horace Clarence Boyer referred to him as “The progenitor of African American gospel music.” According to him, Tindley wrote music with “the language that you would find on the street corner, the language that you would find in the home, the language that you would find in the church,” making his songs more accessible. Tindely’s music took influence from elements of white gospel music, but also largely drew from the blues, forming the basis of the Black gospel hymn style for all who came after.

“We’ll Understand it Better By and By” (or, as it is often simply referred to, “By and By”) was one of the many songs written by Tindley. Another song by Tindley, “I’ll Overcome Some Day,” written in 1901, would become the basis for “We Shall Overcome,” an
anthem of the civil rights movement.

Tindley was a captivating speaker and his sermons were attended by worshippers of all races. By the time Tindley died in 1933 at the age of 82, the congregation numbered well into the thousands. Despite the decades that have passed since, many of his enduring songs, like “We’ll Understand it Better By and By,'' continue to be printed in...Read More