Memphis’ Mighty Souls Brass Band‘s new record comes out next month. But guess what, you can hear new tracks below and buy the record at their show on Sunday, December 7th at Lafayette’s. Caleb Sweazey opens, and it’s all ages.
“It will be an interesting show for us,” band leader Sean Murphy says. “We usually play with five to seven players. We had 13 people playing on the record. We’re going to have all 13 people there. It’s going to be this huge wall of sound.”
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Mighty Souls at Lafayette’s
“It’s 10 originals and two covers: “Memphis Train,” the Rufus Thomas tune, and “I’ll Fly Away.” Everything else is original stuff, songs from seven different band members.
People may not think of brass band music as a medium for contemporary composition. That would be wrong.
“It’s interesting that people have that conception about it being mostly a traditional-song kind of genre, the brass band genre” Murphy says. “You go down to New Orleans and listen to those brass bands — especially those young guys — they’re always composing and writing new stuff. I think they’ve figured out that that’s how you can make some money: getting stuff placed [in television and film].”
There are some heavy player and writers among those 13 souls. The compositions take the sound in new directions.
“We’ll do some stuff that is just a lead sheet,” Murphy says. “Other things — beside the solos — are through-composed. Tom Clary in particular. His compositions are extremely complicated. I jokingly make the Steely Dan Brass Band reference. It ends up being super funky and cool. His tune “Love Button” is my favorite tune on the record.”
