High-energy Trombone Shorty to play Russian River Jazz and Blues Festival

When he’s not out on tour, which is rare, Trombone Shorty likes to cruise around his hometown of New Orleans.

“Me and my cousin usually drive around the city for hours listening to old music with no destination at all,” says Troy Andrews, who got the nickname “Trombone Shorty” from his brother when he was five and smaller than the trombone he played in second-line marches around New Orleans.

“When we got around to the Meters, it was the song “Be My Lady,” and I thought, ‘I need a song like this on my new album - a mid-tempo groove that gets straight to the point.’

“I told my cousin, ‘You know what, I’m gonna record this with the original cast of the Meters.’?”

It didn’t matter that the Meters, the now mythic funk band that reigned in New Orleans in the 1960s and ’70s, hadn’t recorded a song in over three decades.

Andrews called up each member - Art and Cyril Neville, Zigaboo Modeliste, Leo Nocentelli and George Porter Jr. - and one by one each one said, “I’ll do it if everybody else says, ‘yes.’”

Once Andrews corralled them all in the studio, he sat back and “watched the magic happen” as they cooked up a new version of “Be My Lady” for the latest Trombone Shorty album, “Say That to Say This.”

It’s how Andrews operates. He’s been a catalyst his whole life, whether improvising in the streets before learning to read music at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, bringing disparate musicians together to stir a pot of jazz, rock, funk and R&B, or plying his trade non-stop to become a festival favorite from Coachella to Lollapalooza and on to Bonaroo. At 28, Andrews defies genre.

Before he takes a dip in the Russian River Jazz and Blues Festival this weekend, Andrews took a tour-bus break outside of Chicago to chat about punk rock, the Treme and his musical education:

Q: I saw you’ve been playing Green Day’s “Brain Stew” on tour this summer. How does a song like that show up in your repertoire?

A: That’s one of my favorite songs. I’ve been very influenced by rock music my whole life. The way we play that song, it could very well be an original of ours. It’s just me replacing the vocals with the trombone. When I first heard it, I thought that sounds like something I would write musically. And I said, “You know what? We gonna pull this off.”

Q: Take me back to the Treme (neighborhood in New Orleans) when you were growing up. Why did you decide to pick up the trombone?

A: Well, I don’t think I really had a choice at 4 years old. My brother (James Andrews) played the trumpet and my cousin (Glenn David Andrews, in the Rebirth Brass Band) played the trumpet. But we didn’t have that many trombone players.

Q: How important was music education for you?

A: Oh, very important. I learned by ear first with my brother and around 10 or 11, I started to take lessons. Then when I got to the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, that’s when they told me “everything you’re doing already by ear, we just want you to understand technically and theoretically what it is you’re doing.” So it was a backwards learning experience for me.

Q: What should we expect this weekend?

A: It’s gonna be high energy. It’s gonna be a big party like Mardi Gras.

Q: You know, I believe (Meters drummer) Zigaboo Modeliste still lives here in Sonoma County, probably within an hour of the venue. You should call him up and get him down there.

A: Really? I got his number. I’m glad you said that. I might have to put in a call to Zigaboo and see if he can come play with us.

Bay Area freelancer John Beck writes about entertainment for The Press Democrat. You can reach him at 280-8014 or john@beckmediaproductions.com.