Across three albums - 2007’s ‘Rock With The Hot 8’, 2012’s Grammy-nominated ‘The Life & Times Of…’ and 2013’s ‘Tombstone’ – with a host of standout singles, including their iconic version of “Sexual Healing” alongside several other covers and equally impressive originals, Hot 8 Brass Band have told the story of their lives and their city like only they can.
One of the great New Orleans acts, Hot 8 have pushed on through a barely imaginable series of trials. The devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the separate deaths of four of their band members (trumpeter Jacob Johnson, drummer Dinerral Shavers, and trombonists Demond Dorsey and Joseph “Shotgun Joe” Williams) and the horror of trumpeter Terrell “Burger” Batiste losing his legs in a car crash, conspired to test these men almost to breaking point. They honour their fallen friends and help to work towards the future of their community by putting their energies into positive projects at home as well as touring as much as they can. They march together and they play their music - a rambunctious yet elegant and super-tight mix of jazz, funk and hip hop – not merely as though, but because their lives depend on it.
Transcending genres and trends, Hot 8’s party rocking sound and indomitable energy have become renowned across the world, with an ever-growing fanbase and media love across the spectrum from The Guardian and The Sunday Times Magazine to Esquire, BBC Radio 2 to 1Xtra, and beyond. The band and their story featured in Spike Lee’s New Orleans documentaries When The Levee Broke and The Creek Don’t Rise, as well as David Simon’s hit HBO series Treme, and they have performed with artists as diverse as The Dixie Cups, Blind Boys of Alabama, Lauryn Hill and Mos Def. One of a very few brass bands who pour as much charisma, training and talent into their vocals as their horn playing, their sound packs an almighty connective power that remains uniquely Hot 8 no matter what influences they draw on.