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Advocates of musical education, purveyors of polished brass and peddlers of blended cultural manifestos; Madison's revolutionary rump rousers, the Youngblood Brass Band slay all nay-sayers several times over. With a powerful new disc and a burgeoning publishing house/record label, these community communicators are focused on forging a future with a Fugazi-like business plan and a self-determined interactive lifestyle. More than a masterful menagerie of musical talent, the band is committed to creating networks of artistic expression. Breaking down barriers of class and culture with a joyous vibe that is as contagious as it is unconventional, Youngblood Brass Band liberates by bridging gaps and reaching out with motivating pride, unbridled optimism and interstellar grooves. Starting out as two high school buddies jamming after school, the duo evolved from drums and a tuba into five horn players, two drummers, a sousaphonist and MC. While many members filtered through Madison's Mama Digdown Brass Band, it took a several years, twenty-five members and a few international tours to work out the current balance of traditional brass, urban toasting and Afro-Brazilian influences that powers, "Center; Level: Roar." While earlier efforts brought in the talents of rapper Kalib Tewli and Zappa guitarist Ike Willis, as well as serious nods to brass band classics, "Center," brings a sleeker, tighter mix between the African Diaspora that connects their Dixieland jams to their hip-hop beats. Casting a musical spell with serpentine solos and rampaging elephantine choruses, "Center,' carves out mambo-flecked jambalayas of horns and stand-up percussion, unraveling irresistible rhythms to coerce your feet and catapult your brain. Youngblood Brass Band's website www.youngbloodbrassband.com lists a crate of music circulating among the band that goes from Pole to Jeff Buckley, the Roots to Tenacious D, so it's little wonder that, "Center," seems to want to swallow the world and come out swinging. These powerful players take a sweet Michael Jackson tune like, "Human Nature," and mold it into a fiery blast of foot-stomping funk. Whether trading licks between a turntable and sousaphone or expounding common sense solutions with slippery bursts of rage, "Center," soaks in the jungle chants and intelligent rants, accommodating and acknowledging while dancing between cerebral free jazz, marching band robotics and phat stacks of good time music. Beyond the new disc, Youngblood has also initiated a publishing house/record label/music transcription collective called Layered www.layered.org. With the idea of getting more independent art into the schools, the collective publishes poetry and short stories, documents underground music, distributing sheet music to schools while maintaining a forum for educators and artists. In many ways it is an extension of the band's already roaring success of visiting schools and universities for seminars and demonstrations. Believing in bringing the music to the people, the ensemble has excited classrooms from Alabama to Germany, opening eyes and freeing the creative juices from boxed-in thinking and label dependent logic. Absolutely unstoppable, May finds them at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival before they spin through Europe where Youngblood's traveling revolution crosses borders and boundaries without ever leaving the stage. |
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