Photo Credit: The Bloom Effect
Audiences find it difficult to stand still during a Lowdown Brass Band concert. Known for their blood-pumping performances, the Chicago band is touring the Midwest, Canada and the East Coast to promote their latest album, Lowdown Breaks, released in January. As part of that tour, they’ll play Anodyne Coffee in Walker’s Point on Saturday, March 24. Milwaukee musician, producer and songwriter Klassik will open up for the group.
Combining elements of New Orleans Dixieland jazz, funk, ska, Latin music and hip-hop, Lowdown Brass Band has a staggering 11 members, including two drummers, trumpeters, trombonists, a sousaphone player, vocalist and saxophonist. Due to logistics, however, only about six or seven band members go on tour, according to Lance Loiselle, one of the band’s four founding members. Loiselle plays the sousaphone, a more portable version of the traditional tuba invented by American marching band composer John Philip Sousa. He has also produced some of the band’s albums and videos.
“I have my hands in a little bit of everything,” Loiselle said during a telephone interview.
The Detroit native, who said he’s always been interested in music, started playing piano and singing at an early age. While in sixth grade, he started playing tuba and continued playing in his high school marching band. He met fellow brass band enthusiasts Dave Levine, Shane Jonas and Chris Neal when he came to Chicago in the early 2000s to study music at DePaul University. Together, they decided to form the Lowdown Brass Band. Although the band’s lineup has changed in the last decade and a half, the four core members remain.
Lowdown’s influences include groups such as New Orleans-based The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Chicago, The Specials, Earth Wind and Fire, Tower of Power and early Kool and the Gang. “The Dirty Dozen Brass Band is my favorite band of all time,” said Loiselle.
Although the band started out playing traditional New Orleans brass pieces, they quickly began writing their own music, expanding their repertoire to include elements of more modern music.
“We’re like a hip-hop Chicago,” said Loiselle. “We like any type of music with horns in it.”
Loiselle also cites the Windy City’s jazz and blues as an influence. “Pretty much anything Chicago has for urban music, we’re about that,” he said. Three years ago, Chicago rapper MC Billa Camp joined the group to introduce a hip-hop sound.
The band maintains a hectic schedule, playing about 150 shows a year, including jazz festivals in Canada. They will embark on a Pacific Northwest tour starting in Alaska this summer. Also, the band released their self-titled debut album in 2008 and have gone on to record three more full-length albums, including a Christmas one, a 45 and an EP. According to Loiselle, the band plans to continue experimenting with new genres going forward. “We’re working on a reggae album right now,” he said. The group also plans to release a dubstep remix of “We Just Wanna Be,” the title track off their 2009 second album.
Although some of Lowdown’s members work as full-time musicians, others hold day jobs. Loiselle, Jonas and several other members work as educators in the Chicago community. The group has organized several youth and collegiate music education clinics nationwide, which the group has really enjoyed, said Loiselle. Memorable experiences include band members leading 600 students in a conga line while guest artists at the Wyoming Educators State Conference.
“You really have to be educating people to continue this tradition. We’re trying to spread the message of the music,” he said.
Lowdown Brass Band play Anodyne Coffee on Saturday, March 24, at 8 p.m. with Klassik. Their music is streaming at lowdownbrassband.bandcamp.com.
