When the Soul goes marching in

There aren’t many bands like New Orleans’ Soul Rebels Brass Band, a group dedicated enough to follow a stylistically distinct musical vision through the trials and tribulations of 20 consecutive years before even cutting their first major-label release, Unlock Your Mind, released last month on Rounder Records. But the Soul Rebels Brass Band are not now, and never have been, an ordinary New Orleans brass band. For starters, these musicians play almost no traditional New Orleans jazz whatsoever.

Instead, the Soul Rebels take their inspiration from the world of urban contemporary music—new R&B, hip hop, restyled classic ’70s soul, unique interpretations of recent pop hits, and a broad palette of Afro-Caribbean rhythms, especially those borrowed from the stylistic and spiritual universe of Jamaican reggae.

The foundation for the Rebels’ unique vision and musical style borrows from a somewhat-overlooked African-American tradition with roots in the 1960s and 1970s: the marching show bands associated with historically black colleges and universities.

Two of the Soul Rebels’ key members, founder and bass drummer Derrick Moss and long-time trumpeter Marcus Hubbard, credit their tenures in Southern University’s marching band, known to fans as “The Human Jukebox,” with polishing their musical expertise and instilling a sense of discipline that permeates both the Soul Rebels’ tightly arranged music approach and the band’s long-term commitment to achieving professional goals.

Both Moss and Hubbard spent time in New Orleans’ top high-school marching bands, many of which serve as training grounds for the elite collegiate marching bands. But it was in Baton Rouge at Southern—where Moss was drum major for four years—where they began their transformation into professional musicians. “Southern is where I started thinking about music as a way of life—as an area of endeavor that would let me do what I felt most passionate about, and at the same time, allow me to earn a living,” Hubbard says.

Unlock Your Mind reveals this influence early when the CD’s second track, Eurythmics’ signature 1983 hit “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” opens briefly with a jazz-funeral dirge before exploding into a head-swiveling series of back-and-forth unison choruses, immediately conjuring the image of tight-formation brass sections high-stepping across a football field.

Equally impressive, though, are standout examples of reggae rhythms, conga-drum percussion, hip-hop raps, old-school R&B and 1970s soul harmonies—especially on a rendition of Stevie Wonder’s “Living for the City”—all purveyed within the musical context of studiously choreographed and well-rehearsed brass arrangements.

Celebrity cameos abound as well, from kindred spirit Trombone Shorty to Neville Brothers’ vocalist Cyril Neville and The Meters’ funk-pioneer guitarist Leo Nocentelli, who co-produces his own articulate paean to New Orleans’ Mardi Gras Indian street culture.

Consistently straddling the invisible line between party music and sustained listening pleasure, the Soul Rebels apply jazz-education intelligence with a synergistic whole-band mentality to transform easily-accessible pop music into contemporary anthems. In the process, the band lays a foundation for a re-imagined brass band tradition perfectly suited to a multi-cultural 21st century. soulrebelsbrassband.com