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Bonerama
When
Bonerama struts onstage with its four-trombone frontline, you can guess it’s
not quite like any rock ’n’ roll band you’ve seen. When they tear into some
vintage New Orleans funk, there’s no questioning from which city these guys
hail. And when those ‘bones start ripping into Hendrix and Led Zeppelin licks,
all stylistic bets are off.
Even in a
city that doesn’t play by the rules, New Orleans’ Bonerama is something
different. They’re not a traditional brass band, but they’ve got brass to
spare—even with no trumpets or saxes in sight. They can evoke vintage funk,
classic rock and free improvisation in the same set; maybe even the same song. Bonerama
has been repeatedly recognized by
Rolling
Stone, hailed as “the ultimate in brass balls” (2005) and praised for their
“…crushing ensemble riffing, human-feedback shrieks and wah-wah growls.” (2007)
Bonerama carries the brass-band concept to places unknown; what other brass
band could snag an honor for “Best Rock Band” (
Big Easy Awards 2007)? As cofounder Mark Mullins puts it, “We
thought we could expand what a New Orleans brass band could do. Bands like
Dirty Dozen started the ‘anything goes’ concept, bringing in the guitars and
the drumkit and using the sousaphone like a bass guitar. We thought we could
push things a little further.”
New
Orleans’ fertile club scene was directly responsible for Bonerama getting
together. Trombonists Mullins and Craig Klein were both members of Harry
Connick’s band, where they’d been since 1990. Both were looking to supplement
this gig with something a little less structured. “Harry sets the bar pretty
high, and you have to play it the same way every night for everyone to follow.”
The big
chance came in the summer of ’98, when Mullins had a weekly residency at
Tipitina’s in the French Quarter. The club was then turning weekly slots over
to some of the city’s favorite musicians, including Allen Toussaint and Cyril
Neville; Mullins got charge of Wednesdays. Word got out one week that he and
Klein were staging their trombone super-session and everybody they knew wanted
to get involved. “It seemed that half the trombone players in town showed up,”
Klein recalls. “At the end of the night we had them all onstage, maybe fifteen
trombones at once. It sounded like a freight train, a big wall of sound coming
right at you.”
The players
in the lineup all add to Bonerama’s diverse blend: Rick Trolsen was one of the
first to answer the call for trombonists at Tipitina’s. A New Jersey native who
grew up on hippie communes, he first saw New Orleans when the Navy shipped him
there; he soon resolved to get out of the Navy and into music full-time. New
Orleans native Steve Suter is a classically-trained player and a former member
of the Louisiana Philharmonic. A key member of the early lineup was bass
trombone player Brian O’Neill. A few years older than his bandmates, O’Neill
had toured with R&B legend Wayne Cochran and his CC Riders. “He could do
all the stuff that you’re not supposed to be able to do on a trombone,” Mullins
says.
Sousaphone
player Matt Perrine adds the bassline to Bonerama’s sound and an additional
voice to the songwriting. Matt has played with everyone from the New Orleans’
Nightcrawlers brass band to the alternative rock trio the Tin Men. Guitarist
Bert Cotton learned his chops at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and
then came to New Orleans to immerse himself in funk. “He can fill out the
chords harmonically, which is one thing that makes us different from a
traditional brass band sound,” Klein says. Currently, drummer Eric Bolivar (who
played Latin music in New York before joining Anders Osborne’s band in New
Orleans) is tag-teaming with Terence Higgins, legendary drummer of the Dirty
Dozen Brass Band.
Along with
his jazz connections, Mullins is Bonerama’s resident rock ’n’ roller: It was
Mullins who instigated the offbeat classic-rock covers that have become a band
tradition. Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein” was the first nugget to get the
treatment and songs by Hendrix, Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and the Allman Brothers
Band have since appeared in their set right alongside the funk and
jazz-flavored numbers. “There’s definitely something about the guitar and the
trombone that are related,” Mullins figures. “You compare the fretboard to the
slide; there’s a lot of similarity there.” Indeed, the sounds Mullins makes by
playing through a guitar amp and wah-wah pedal may explain why he’s named Jimi
Hendrix as one of his favorite trombonists. “It’s great to grab people with the
rock songs, and then turn them on to some New Orleans music at the same time,”
Klein says.
The buzz on
Bonerama grew with hometown acclaim (with the band winning numerous
OffBeat Magazine
Awards
; and
Mullins regularly topping
Offbeat’s
trombone category), lots of roadwork, and a pair of live albums—the first
recorded close to home at the Old Point in Algiers; the second on tour in New
York.
The Boston Herald called them a
“bonehead’s dream”; the
Vail (CO) Daily
noted that “the sound is fat and wet; sometimes downright lusty.” As hometown
music zine
Offbeat put it, “That
nerdy kid in the band room with the trombone just might have the last laugh
after all.”
Since live performance is what Bonerama is all about, it’s no coincidence that
their third album,
Bringing It Home,
is also their third consecutive live disc. It also testifies to the amount of
tightening-up the band’s done in recent years. Joining another stack of
Bonerama originals are covers ranging from the Meters and George Porter Jr. to
the Beatles (two from the
White Album,
no less) to Thelonious Monk. And when they take on Led Zeppelin’s “The Ocean” –
with trombones doing the familiar backing vocals along with the big guitar riff
– you can practically hear the audience’s jaws dropping.
Opening the
disc is the high-stepping original “Bayou Betty,” which recently got some extra
mileage: Bonerama were the house band for the all-star Comic Relief benefit in
Las Vegas in November 2006 and played that tune as the likes of Billy Crystal,
Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg took the stage. Another memorable show
happened the same month back at Tipitina’s, when the Future of Music Coalition
sponsored a night to benefit the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic. Not only did
Bonerama play alongside the likes of Steve Earle, Mike Mills (R.E.M.) and Tom
Morello (Rage Against the Machine) but also behind Tony Clifton - the
international lounge lizard created by Andy Kaufman, making one of his first
appearances (courtesy of Bob Zmuda, Kaufman’s partner and Comic Relief founder)
since rising from the dead.
The band
has lately survived some harder times as well. They were dealt a shock in
December 2005 when band member Brian O’Neill passed away from a sudden heart
attack while playing a solo piano gig. “He’s not the kind of guy you can
replace,” says Mullins. “Nobody could do what he could. After dealing with our
own grief, we had to face the question of what it meant to us as a band.”
Original trombonist Rick Trolsen wound up rejoining the band; so a lot of
O’Neill’s spirit – along with his distinctive parts – is still present.
In case
anyone needs more proof, the festive vibe of the new CD gives evidence that the
spirit of New Orleans music is still going strong. “The music came back to town
quicker than most anything else did,” notes Mullins. “Things look better now
than I thought they ever could after the storm happened, that’s for sure.”
www.bonerama.net
Management:
High
Steppin’ Productions
Philip
Stepanian
617.628.5600
pstep@highsteppinproductions.com
Booking:
Blue Mountain
Artists
Hugh Southard
704.525.1559
hugh@bluemountainartists.com
Publicity:
Madison
House Publicity
303.413.8308
www.madisonhousepublicity.com
Official Website
Show Schedule
MP3 Sample Tracks:
Bayou Betty
Ocean
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