Trombone Shorty & New Breed Brass Band - Second Line Sunday (2025) [Hi-Res]

“We wanted to make something that could be played in the streets,” says New Breed bandleader Jenard Andrews. “That’s where we all come from, and it was important for us to honor our roots with this record.”

For Trombone Shorty, those roots stretch back as far as he can remember. Born Troy Andrews, he made his first appearance at Jazz Fest at the age of four, when he took the stage for an impromptu performance with Bo Diddley. By six, Shorty was heading up his own brass band, and by his early twenties, he’d released the first in a string of critically acclaimed, chart-topping albums that would lead to performances everywhere from the White House and the Grammy Awards to MSG and the Super Bowl. Along the way, Shorty would tour with artists as diverse as Jeff Beck and the Red Hot Chili Peppers; play Coachella, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and countless other iconic festivals; earn his first Grammy Award; appear on The Tonight Show, The Late Show, Conan, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, HBO’s Treme, and even an episode of The Simpsons; and collaborate with an eclectic mix of stars including Pharrell, Bruno Mars, Mark Ronson, Jon Batiste, Lenny Kravitz, Foo Fighters, ZHU, Zac Brown, Normani, and Ringo Star. In 2011, he launched the Trombone Shorty Foundation to support youth music education, and in 2016, he received the prestigious Caldecott Honor for his first children’s book. At home in New Orleans, Shorty now leads his own Mardi Gras parade atop a giant float crafted in his likeness, hosts the annual Voodoo Threauxdown shows (which have drawn guests including Usher, Nick Jonas, Dierks Bentley, Andra Day, and Leon Bridges), and has taken over Jazz Fest’s hallowed final set, which has seen him closing out the internationally renowned gathering after performances by the likes of Neil Young, the Black Keys, and Kings of Leon.

“Growing up, I was surrounded by this music before I could even play a note,” Shorty reflects. “I heard it and I saw it and I felt it as a kid, and it was just completely infectious.”

While they represent a more recent addition to the scene, the members of New Breed Brass Band were similarly born into the music (Andrews is, in fact, Shorty’s nephew). After getting their start playing festivals and parades around New Orleans, the group began developing an eclectic, adventurous sound that fused their Louisiana roots with elements of rock, funk, soul, jazz, hip-hop, and Caribbean music. Under the mentorship of Shorty (who performs as a member of the band whenever possible), New Breed released their Grammy-nominated debut, Made In New Orleans, to widespread praise in 2023, with Offbeat raving that it “truly captures the spirit of this city’s ‘we are one’ street culture that has been vital to their lives.” The following year, New Breed took the stage at Jazz Fest ahead of the Rolling Stones, and the resulting live album led to the band’s second Grammy nomination.

“We never wanted to put any limits on our sound,” says Andrews. “We wanted to step outside the box and maybe surprise some people who think they know what a brass band can do.”

Between albums, New Breed continued to regularly jam at Shorty’s studio in the Lower Garden District, where the music never stops.

“We’re always in there working, rehearsing, catching up, playing just for fun,” says Shorty. “We’re all fans of each other, so we’re always thinking up new ideas and bringing in stuff that moves the culture forward, which is what gets us excited.”

For Second Line Sunday, though, Shorty and New Breed decided to look backwards for a change, returning to the unique sounds of the second line parades that first captured their imaginations all those years ago.

“This album is dedicated to my late mother, who put me in the music in the first place,” Shorty explains. “This is the sound she lived and breathed and loved so much.”

Shorty’s mother wasn’t alone in her passion for second line music, which has become not only a hallmark of the city, but also a sign of its slow and steady recovery post-Katrina.

“After the storm, we didn’t know if the musicians would come back,” Shorty reflects. “We would have kept on playing this music wherever we ended up, but there’s something about it that has to happen in New Orleans for it to really click. There’s something about the people, something about the atmosphere that you just can’t replicate anywhere else.”

That sense of place is palpable from the outset on Second Line Sunday, which opens with the invigorating “Line Em Up.” Evoking the “big reveal” moment at the start of a second line, when the band kicks in and the parade-goers all file out the door, the track is big and bold, announcing itself with an undeniable confidence and charisma. From there, the music makes its way through the city, delivering rapturous, relentless energy as it invites one and all to join in the revelry. The exhilarating “Good Time” delivers on its titular promise, coasting on an addictive groove that underpins its smooth, breezy vocals; the rollicking “Street Music” evolves from a straight-ahead brass band blowout into something more subtle and nuanced; and the playful “Party Pack” gets the crowd moving with euphoric percussion and chanting.

“These songs really capture the essence of the streets,” says Andrews. “The crowds out there know exactly what they want, and you have to deliver.”

Listeners familiar with New Orleans will no doubt recognize several stops along the way here: the tight, punchy “Tambourine and Fan” tips its cap to the Treme summer camp founded by Civil Rights activist Jerome Smith, who’s taught local kids about Black history and culture since the late ’60s; the electrifying “6th Ward” draws on rhythms particular to the neighborhood and its musical traditions; the rousing “Way Downtown” heads east over the canal thanks to an appearance from Big Chief Romeo of the 9th Ward Hunters Mardi Gras Indian tribe; and the triumphant “Under The Bridge” captures the unbridled exuberance that breaks out when any parade finally makes its way beneath the Claiborne overpass.

“If you’re from here, you can start to tell what part of town a band is from just by the way they play,” Shorty explains. “It’s an intricate thing, but there are certain drum patterns that represent certain subgenres of New Orleans music, and we had some fun bringing them together on this album.”

That local color carries over into the album’s final track, “End of the Line,” which finds the band cutting loose for the kind of impromptu, off-the-cuff jam that might mark the final minutes of what could easily be a four-hour parade.

“By the time we finish, you can hear the sounds of everybody out in the street, of the police sirens and the DJ rolling by on a trolley playing bounce music,” explains Shorty. “We wanted it to feel like you’re right there with us.”

In the end, that’s the magic of Second Line Sunday. It doesn’t bring New Orleans to the world, it brings the world to New Orleans. And when it comes to celebrations, nobody does it better.