Dirty Catfish Brass band heat up the night with New Orleans jazz

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Winnipeg based New Orleans style brass band The Dirty Catfish Brass Band are making jazz music fun again.
 They played an energetic Show at the Slice, Wednesday, Nov. 21 for a surprisingly good sized Wednesday night crowd of approximately 30, some of whom remembered them from their Windy City Opry show almost exactly a year ago at the Slice.

The Dirty Catfish brass Band returned to the Slice , Nov. 21. Photo by Richard Amery
 It’s hard not to smile when hearing this cadre of upbeat horns, and  frontman Todd Martin‘s castrati vocals.


 Martin was impressive, alternately singing an a wavering, soulful falsetto and playing  Mellophone and harp.
 There wasn’t a guitar in sight. The horns did all the work, supplying additional bottom end to throbbing bass as well as punchy melodies.
I arrived in the middle of a jam on a song called “Lil’ Liza Jane.”


 The septet beamed as they rotated in place in between trading solos.


They played a lot of brassy New Orleans  jazz punctuated by  gang vocals and lots of energy. But they also turned a few popular pop songs into jazz songs.


 By request, they blasted into a hit jazzy cover of Stompin’ Tom Connors ’ “The Hockey Song.” They introduced it with a few bars of “Iko Iko” and  Saxophonist Graham  Dion  did a credible  version of a goal  and period ending buzzer on baritone saxophone to add to the humour.
 They ended their show around 11 p.m. with an encore– a mix of two songs including Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop ’Til you Get Enough.”

— by Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
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Last Updated ( Friday, 30 November 2018 01:27 )