Chords for Trombone Shorty talks New Orleans Jazz and Finding Your Sound | Reverb Interview

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_ _ _ _ _ _ Growing up in the Tremere, you know, there was a lot of [A] people in the neighborhood such
as [G] the [D] Rebirth Brass Band, Dirty Dozen [C] Brass Band, [Ab] Kermit Ruffins, my family, we all played
[E] music so I was really listening to people in the neighborhood [Cm] so I would stand next
to some of the legends in the brass band community, a guy named [C] Corey Henry, a wolf who played the trombone.
I would stand next to them as we marched down the street and [Fm] whatever I heard from those
guys, that's what I picked up.
Everyone was [E] influenced by some type of music but they never really got into [Bb] it deep enough
to [F] where they were copying that style of music so what [Dm] they would do [B] is when they thought
they were copying it, they were actually messing it up but it [Abm] created our own sound so if they
heard Dirty [A] Dozen, [B] some type of jazz [A] band playing some really fast [Gb] licks or whatever
it may be, they thought they were doing it but they really [B] wasn't getting it [C] together
so it created [Bm] our own thing off of [E]
imagination.
[B] We play with these guys [Em] every day all year so if they got a favorite lick [Am] that they play,
we naturally pick it up and then we force them to play something else because if we
take a solo first, [D] we're probably going to play their lick before them [Abm] but in my neighborhood,
[G] the person at the [Cm] store, the woman that's cooking food around the house, she can say
oh that's Kermit Ruffins [C] coming up the street and [Am] that's very rare to be able to have that
sound [Fm] to normal ear so that's what we try to go off and it happened naturally like [Bb] that.
In New Orleans, it's such a special place because even though my mom doesn't [B] play instruments
or my dad doesn't play, they can get on a drum [Abm] and show you [Ab] the beat that should be
played with a certain [Dbm] song just because we all grew up doing it and everybody in New
Orleans, even when they speak to you, they might have a [A] tone in their voice like [Gb] they're
singing your name when they're saying hello so everybody [C] has [B] some type of rhythm there
and straight from the heart, you know, it [E] makes everybody move.
You see thousands of people moving down [A] the street, there's a bass drum and a tuba and
you hear [N] that percussion going, it's just a different type of thing.
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_ _ _ _ _ _ went _ _ _ _ _ _ to the New Orleans Center [Bb] for Creative Arts and [A] that's when I was technically [F] trained.
_ [Am] I had the street side playing by ear and then I learned [Dm] all the fundamentals over there
and over time, [E] learning and arranging different things and listening to styles of [Cm] music outside
of what I grew up listening to and the more I learned, I started to be [C] exposed and able
to play with different people that was _ given that [A] style of music [Ab] in New Orleans such as
Alan Toussaint, he was _
[E] a great guy, a great songwriter so I was able to be underneath
these [Abm] people, Dr.
John and play with these guys as I was coming [Dm] up and [B] because they didn't
play brass instruments, they [Db] approached New [D] Orleans music from a different [Dbm] _ perspective
[E] and [A] I was able to play underneath those guys [B] and then I took that [A] information and added
[B] it with what I grew up with [Gb] and then here [C] I am now.
I just was learning and spending time, [Bm] I spent years at Cyril [Em] Neville's house learning from
him and [Bm] just watching [Gm] his process of songwriting and [B] I just took [C] everything I can from [A] everybody.
[Dm] I think we all struggle with that, trying to find new [Am] things but I think you have to
be dedicated [Fm] to whatever style of music you're trying to learn so if [Dbm] I'm going to learn _ _ [Cm] Nine
O'Clock, Neo FX or whatever punk band it may be, I'll spend the [C] proper amount of time
_ [Am] learning and trying to figure out and going back to where [Ab] they got their influences from
so I can at least be somewhat authentic about their [E] music that I'm trying to [Abm] approach.
So it's almost [Bb] like method [B] acting, you know, like if you're playing a certain [Abm] character
you need to really be that [Ebm] person and then somewhere [Ab] in the midst of trying to [D] discover
what's [A] going on, something clicks for you emotionally and then you start to understand
mentally what's going [B] on and you start to [Gb] ask questions and then [C] if I'm listening to
it all day some type of way when I'm playing with the [Bm] band and we're doing something, some
type of country lick [Gm] might come out naturally [C] out of my horn that [A] I wasn't even thinking
about because [F] it's in my mind already.
[Am] It's like I say going to [Dm] different neighborhoods so [Fm] if I move here I'm pretty sure [G] in a certain
[Db] neighborhood I will pick [Em] up the [Cm] way they speak, the way they talk, [Db] the way they walk,
[Ab] I'll just pick that up because that's what I'm [C] surrounded by and then I won't lose what
I've had from New Orleans, I'll just put it all in the [N]
same thing. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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