“Hot 8 music is feel good music…music with a message. It’s life music.” – Band leader, Bennie Pete

Another very special guest we have over to celebrate being 10 yrs old this month is Louisiana’s favourite 2nd line marching band The Hot 8 Brass Band. No stranger to our shores Bennie Pete & Co. return for a special series of 4 shows during the October Bank Holiday Weekend (1 in The Village with Milwaukee’s Kings Go Forth & 3 in the Bodega Bar with Kings Go Forth).

The Hot 8 Brass Band came to prominence in 2007 when a cdr of their version of ‘Sexual Healing’ made its way to Gilles Peterson via Quantic and was an immediate hit on his weekly radio show, subsequently due to the sheer demand for the song it was officially put out by Tru Thoughts the Brighton based label A&R’d by DJ Rob Luis in late 2007.
This record sent shock waves across dancefloors in clubs and festivals the world over for the next couple of years and today still remains an instant classic. The record was so successful it led to Tru Thoughts and Hot 8 releasing their full length Rock With The Hot 8 the following spring 2008 – originally released in 2005 by the band themselves on Red Hot Louisiana.

Set up by Bennie Pete ( Tuba ) the bands current members are Terrell “Burger” Batiste – trumpet Alvarez “B.I.G. AL” Huntley – trumpet Raymond “Dr. Rackle” Williams – trumpet Jerome “Baybay” Jones – trombone Keith “Wolf” Anderson – trombone Jereau “Cousin” Fournett – trombone Wendell “Cliff” Stewart – saxophone Harry “Swamp Thang” Cook – bass drum.

Professional musicians for the last 15 years the band have recently received further popularity in Series 2 of David Simon’s (The Wire) current offering Treme – which they regularly feature in as actors & musicians.
For anyone who has followed this programme it’s easy to imagine these all day long jam sessions in the blistering sun, cajun and creole recipes cooking on the bbq and then in the evening moving the occassion from bar to club to after-party playing their well worn brass instruments unflinching as they wander into the early hours of the morning as is the way of the New Orleans folk.
The disaster of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 had a devastating impact on New Orleans and indirectly brought the band to national attention when featured in the Spike Lee directed ‘When the Levee Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts’ featuring them performing to evacuees and disbanded members of their community in shelters and homes set up as a result of the carnage caused by the Hurricane.

The band were not immune to this adversity either as their drummer Dinerral Shavers was shot and killed while with his wife and child in the mayhem that ensued post Katrina in a town gripped in grief and malaise. Two more of their members have lost their lives to street violence and despite the adversity and challenges they have encountered both individually and collectively The Hot 8 are as commited as ever to bringing people together with their music

A new album is scheduled to be released in early 2012 on Tru Thoughts and we will bear witness to some new material at these shows. The band have already played for us several times to sensational crowd reactions and we look forward to hosting them over two legs this bank holiday at The Village Venue & The Bodega in Cork during the Jazz Weekender  Oct 28/29/30 and let us not forget about Kings Go Forth who will be sharing the same stage on all dates.

Tickets are now on sale here and we reckon this is great bang for you buck at 20 euro – we hope to see you join us Rock with the Hot 8!