THE VILAR PERFORMING ARTS CENTER BRINGS
N’AWLINS FLAVOR TO BEAVER CREEK WITH
TROMBONE SHORTY & ORLEANS AVENUE
BEAVER CREEK, CO: The Vilar Performing Arts Center (VPAC) and Vail Jazz welcome Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue on Friday, December 26 at 7:30PM. This hard-edged funk/rock/jazz/hip-hop band led by New Orleans native Trombone Shorty employs hip-hop beats, rock dynamics, and jazz improvisation. Trombone Shorty performs with his band Orleans Avenue, members include Pete Murano (Guitar), Michael “Mike Bass” Ballard (Bass Guitar), Dan Oestreicher (Baritone Saxophone), and Joey Peebles (Drums). Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue have toured across the U.S., Europe, Australia, Russia, Japan and Brazil. Tickets to Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue are $78 and are on sale now at the VPAC Box Office (970.845.8497/www.vilarpac.org). The VPAC is located under the ice rink in Beaver Creek Village (68 Avondale Lane, Beaver Creek, Colorado).
VPAC Executive Director Kris Sabel states, “We’ve been trying to get Shorty to our stage for years, and as soon as he was willing to come during the holidays, we jumped on the opportunity to have him and his band in Beaver Creek. The day after Christmas is a great time to let loose and have some fun after all the stress of the holidays. This is going to be such an energetic show. The dance pit will be open, so you can come out and dance the night away to these great New Orleans beats”.
Born Troy Michael Andrews, he was always that young trombone player who would walk the streets of his culturally-rich Treme neighborhood blowing his horn. He emulated the musicians he heard playing in the “second line” parades, most notably his older brother James, a skilled performer in his own right. Young Troy was so small—his instrument was twice his size—and so talented, that he earned the nickname Trombone Shorty, and it stuck.
Beginning his career as a bandleader at the young age of 6, touring internationally at age 12, and spending his teens playing with various brass bands throughout New Orleans and touring worldwide with Lenny Kravitz, Trombone Shorty (Troy Andrews) is already a veteran of the stage with the talent to prove it.
Just as music transformed his own life, Trombone Shorty has advanced the course of the New Orleans sound by making it his own. Always respectful of and inspired by the music’s history, he developed a foundation built upon the many musical traditions of his hometown—jazz, gospel, and R&B—and updated them with modern rock and hip-hop influences. In doing so, he has created his own style, one he calls “SupaFunkRock.”
In 2010, Trombone Shorty released the Grammy-nominated Backatown, followed in 2011 by For True, which topped Billboard Magazine’s Contemporary Jazz Chart for 12 weeks. His third outing for Verve Records, Say That To Say This, co-produced by Shorty and R&B titan Raphael Saadiq, was released in September 2013.
In 2012, Trombone Shorty performed at the White House in honor of Black History Month with music royalty such as B.B. King, Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck, Booker T. Jones, Susan Tedeschi & Derek Trucks, and Gary Clark Jr. Later that same year he received the President’s Medal from Tulane University in recognition of his charitable work with his own Trombone Shorty Foundation.
In January 2014 Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue performed on the 56th Annual Grammy Awards with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Mary Lambert, Madonna and Queen Latifah. The band has made guest appearances on Conan, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Arsenio, and Austin City Limits. Shorty has also played himself in a recurring role on the hit HBO series Treme.
Tickets to Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue are $78 and are on sale now at the VPAC Box Office (970.845.8497/www.vilarpac.org). The VPAC is located under the ice rink in Beaver Creek Village (68 Avondale Lane, Beaver Creek, Colorado).