Performing at a variety of styles of events from concerts at indoor venues to outdoor music festivals to private parties to jazz funerals, Phil's Big Ass Brass Band combines the big sounds of brass and percussion instruments in motion. The group visited the WYSO studios for a live session on Kaleidoscope ahead of their upcoming performance in Yellow Springs.
Trumpet player and bandleader Phil Bradley-Hutchison says that the band's roots are in Dayton's Mardi Gras Threauxdown.
"Brad [Denson] just kind of came to me, and said he was doing it and I was like, 'Hey, let me get together a brass band, man. I'll throw together a brass band, we'll do a parade and everything like that,' and it kind of just grew from there."
The members of Phil's Big Ass Brass Band come from a variety of musical backgrounds, including many high school marching band alumni, and most perform in multiple projects across southwest Ohio. They're united by a love for a big sound and the big energy that comes from an ensemble like this.
"A lot of that goes into folk traditions, African folk traditions. But all folk traditions where the drums and groove just gets people moving. And that connects with people on a human level. So I think that's foundational," says sousaphone player Umvikeli G Scott Jones. "And this music just keeps that tradition and puts it in the context with brass instruments and drums and everything like that. So it just really is a fusion of really kind of ancient traditions with the modern and with distinctly American influences, with some Native American influences, African American influences and then Scottish influences and things like that."
Phil's Big Ass Brass Band will perform at Trail Town Brewing in Yellow Springs on Saturday, July 11 starting at 7:30 pm. The band is also available for private events and can be contact via their Facebook page.
