Careers Chosen while in high school don’t always prove to be long-lived choices—but then, the founders of New Orleans’ Rebirth Brass Band, which marks its 30th anniversary this year, didn’t start the group as a long-range career move. They did it just to play music.

The band’s original members were all in high school when they began performing together in the summer of 1983.

“When we first started, we were just playing for fun, just going down to the French Quarter in New Orleans playing for tips, just something for us to do during the course of the summer. And during the school year, we’d go out to the French Quarter as well,” says drummer Keith Frazier.

Rebirth Brass Band makes their first appearance at the San Jose Jazz Summer Fest Main Stage on Aug. 10.

Those high schoolers—who included Frazier and his brother, Phil, the band’s tuba/sousaphone player, as well as trumpeter Kermit Ruffins—have gone on to become a force in the New Orleans music scene. The band has even performed—and acted a bit—on Treme, the HBO series about the rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Last year, they became Grammy winners for Best Regional Roots Album for The Rebirth of New Orleans.

Rebirth began by playing a lot of traditional jazz, and over the years has built on that genre, adding new influences, and creating many original tunes with a bass-heavy, brassy sound.

“Now our repertoire of songs has really grown since we first started out. We do a little bit of everything—R&B, hip-hop, all in a New Orleans way, so we’ve grown musically that way,” Frazier says.

Strong bass and rhythm are what drive the group’s sound. Brass creates the undeniably showy top notes in this music, but it’s the heavy, insistent bass notes that get people dancing.
And the bass part is where the band begins when writing songs.

“The bass is the root of the song, the tuba part, we try to get that part of the song first. Without the foundation, you have nothing,” Frazier says.

The brotherly dynamic is at work here, too, with Keith playing bass drum, and Phil on tuba/sousaphone.

Ruffins went solo in the early ’90s, but still occasionally collaborates with the band. In fact, in recording more than a dozen albums (13, not counting compilations), the band has brought more than a couple dozen musicians through its lineup—and they all bring their own influences to the mix.

“A lot of these young guys get into the band and there’s all types of New Wave music, electronics and different things like that, so it brings a different kind of flavor to an old form of music,” Frazier says.

“Jazz has been around for hundreds of years, but we’ve added just a little bit of a new take on it [that] brings something new to it, keeps it lively and fresh,” he adds.

Rebirth Brass Band
Sat, Aug. 10, 2pm
Main Stage

also:

Sat, Aug. 10, 9pm

Y&P Stage

$20 festival admission

Following in the footsteps of Music in the Park, after ending its five-year run in 2012, Silicon Valley’s most popular pool party, Detox Sundays, returns on July 28 for one day only this year at the Silicon Valley Athletic Club.

When it started in 2008, despite a full-blown recession, it was an instant success. The idea was to bring the poolside, daytime club atmosphere of Rehab—the popular Vegas Party—to San Jose. Nothing like it had existed in the South Bay before, at least not in any consistent way.

In addition to its first ever non-hotel location, there’ll be a change in the music format. Prior events had mostly soulful house. At this event, the DJs will be also spinning pop, top 40 and a little bit of hip-hop.

These factors won’t change the popular Detox brand, which from 2008-2012 drew up to 1,000 people during the summer months. There will still be lots of music, food, booze, shirtless men and bikini-clad women—the perfect environment for dancing, swimming, or just lounging around nursing a hangover (or creating one).

The new location has some great perks: there’s a very nice outdoor pool, but most importantly it will be back in downtown San Jose—its home during the early years at Doubletree Hotel, as opposed to the last couple of years at the Beverly Heritage Hotel in Milpitas.

“When we found the opportunity to get it back in the heart of where it started, that was really the big driver as to why we moved it to the Athletic Club,” says Stephen Bradley, of the promoter behind the return of Detox.

Detox Sundays starts at noon and continues until 8pm with DJs Amy Robbins, Playboi, DJ Weapon, Jose Melendez and Adam Cova. Tickets are $25.

Detox Sunday Returns
Silicon Valley Athletic Club, San Jose
July 28, noon, $25