Trombone Shorty

Trombone Shorty is the stage name of New Orleans’ trombonist, composer, bandleader, author, and philanthropist Troy Andrews. A childhood prodigy, he debuted with Bo Diddley at age four, was leading his own brass band at six, and touring with Lenny Kravitz at 13. Andrews’ inimitable sound is fat, brash, and aggressive one moment, and warm, moaning, and sweet the next. His encyclopedic knowledge of the brass band tradition allows him to play the repertoire straight as well as integrating it in his own compositions with funk, jazz, rock, hip-hop, soul, and blues. His debut, Trombone Shorty's Swingin' Gate, was released in 2002. He signed to Verve Forecast for 2010′s major-label breakthrough, Backatown, followed by For True the following year, and Say That to Say This in 2013. All topped the contemporary jazz album charts and won global notice. Fiercely devoted to his Treme neighborhood, Andrews created the Trombone Shorty Foundation, personally donating quality instruments to local schools and individuals. In 2015, he published Trombone Shorty. He signed to Blue Note for 2017′s Parking Lot Symphony, which spent seven weeks atop the contemporary jazz charts. Andrews’ second kids’ book, The 5 O’Clock Band, was published in 2018. Lifted, his second Blue Note album, appeared in 2022.
Andrews was born one of seven children into a well-known musical family in New Orleans in 1986. His grandfather Jessie Hill was a locally popular R&B recording artist, while older brother, James "12" Andrews, is a successful jazz trumpeter and an early mentor. Andrews began making music at a very early age and was playing professionally at age four, performing with Bo Diddley at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. He mastered trombone, trumpet, tuba, organ, and drums, eventually choosing the trombone as his principal instrument and thus picking up his nickname, because at the time the horn was bigger than he was. he began leading local brass bands when he was just six. So advanced was he, that at the age of eight, a club in the Tremé district was named Trombone Shorts in his honor.
In 1995 when he was nine, his brother Darnell, also a talented trombone player, was shot and killed. Following the tragedy his mother was overwhelmed with grief. Fearing for his talented younger brother’s future in an increasingly violent neighborhood, James Andrews placed Shorty in the care of his manager and friend, the late businesswoman Susan Lovejoy Scott. From a wealthy, prominent NOLA family, Lovejoy Scott acted in loco parentis, managing and mentoring Andrews through his tenure at New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts’ (NOCCA). Her stewardship is credited with his exposure, as well as levelheadedness and professionalism, and her influence kept him from enduring the same pitfalls as many of local contemporaries.
Andrews became a member of NOCCA’s musical education program for high school students; other graduates included Harry Connick, Jr., Nicholas Payton, and Wynton and Branford Marsalis. At NOCCA, Andrews took music theory, ear training, and instrumental instruction courses under Clyde Kerr, Jr. and Kent Jordan, among others. In 2003 he was one of five young musicians chosen as the subject for a PBS television documentary, and also performed on the network’s nationally broadcast tribute to Louis Armstrong, directed by Wynton Marsalis. Outside his hometown, Andrews has appeared with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and has performed with U2 and Green Day. He has also traveled extensively overseas, playing concerts and festivals in Cuba and Europe; he has appeared at the Vienna Jazz Festival, the North Sea Jazz Festival, and the Istanbul Jazz Festival.
As a recording artist, Andrews has appeared on Global Song of Kids, a collection of children’s songs played in the style of New Orleans marching bands released in Japan. His first recording, Trombone Shorty's Swingin' Gate, was issued in 2002 and featured several of his own compositions; it was acclaimed by local jazz critics. This was followed in 2004 by The Same Pocket, Vol. 1 (by the BlueBrass Project) and 12 & Shorty (with his brother James’ band). In 2005, Treme Records released The End of the Beginning (by the Troy Andrews Quintet) and Orleans & Claiborne (by Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews & Orleans Avenue), as well as four volumes of live performances at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. He also appeared on the club hit “Tufflove” from Galactic’s Ya-Ka-May in 2010.
That same year Trombone Shorty released his Verve Records debut, Backatown (on which he not only plays trombone but also sings and plays trumpet, keyboards, drums, and other percussion). Backatown was greeted by nearly universal critical and commercial acclaim — it hit the contemporary jazz album chart at number one and remained there for nine straight weeks, and stayed in the Top Ten for more than six months, eventually cracking the Top 200. The album received a Grammy nomination. Andrews and band toured worldwide to support it, performing to sold-out crowds all over the globe with their high-energy meld of styles, opening for the likes of Jeff Beck and Dave Matthews, and playing the Bonnaroo and Bumbershoot Festival stages along the way. Andrews also appeared as himself in several episodes of the HBO television series Tréme.
Taking no time off, Shorty and Orleans Avenue recorded For True during short breaks from the road. For True was released on September 13, 2011. It was produced by Ben Ellman and George Drakoulias, and featured a host of guest appearances from Jeff Beck, Ledisi, Lenny Kravitz, Kid Rock, Warren Haynes, Ivan and Cyril Neville, and the Rebirth Brass Band, among others. While Andrews spent most of the next 18 months touring over the next two years, he also became an in-demand guest sideman, appearing on albums by the Soul Rebels Brass Band, the Zac Brown Band, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Cee Lo Green, Rod Stewart, and Robert Randolph.
In 2012, he appeared at the White House with numerous artists as part of the PBS documentary In Performance at the White House: Red, White & Blues. Andrews partnered with New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu to create the Trombone Shorty Foundation, which donated new instruments to public schools as well as individuals in order “to preserve and perpetuate the unique musical culture of New Orleans by passing down its traditions to future generations of musicians.” In December, the Foundation partnered with Tulane University creating an After School Academy to mentor aspiring high school musicians from the New Orleans area.
In September 2013, Andrews released his third and final Verve offering, Say That to Say This. Co-produced with Raphael Saadiq, the album found Andrews digging even deeper into an R&B- and NOLA funk-influenced sound. It spent six weeks atop the contemporary jazz albums chart and remained on it for more than a year. He next appeared on Mark Ronson’s hit 2014 album, Uptown Special, after which he made his feature film debut as the voice of teacher Miss Othmar in 2015′s animated Peanuts Movie.
Also in 2015, Andrews completed and published his first children’s book. Simply titled Trombone Shorty, it was illustrated Bryan Collier, and published by Abrams Books. It was named as a Caldecott Honors Book the following year. Andrews also received the 21st Annual Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities category “for his achievements as a musician and for his community work to preserve and pass on to younger generations the rich musical heritage of his native New Orleans.”
Over the next several years, Andrews made guest appearances on several high-profile albums by artists ranging from Mindi Abair and Dierks Bentley to Bettye LaVette and French rapper/producer Nekfeu. In 2017, Andrews signed with Blue Note Records and delivered the album Parking Lot Symphony, featuring the single “Here Come the Girls.” Produced by Chris Seefried, the album also included covers of songs by New Orleans legends Allen Toussaint and the Meters. Ivan Neville and Leo Nocentelli guested on the set The album topped both the contemporary jazz and jazz album charts; it spent more than 30 weeks on the latter. The following year, the trombonist published his second books for young readers, The 5 O’Clock Band — also illustrated by Bryan Collier — for Abrams Books.
After two world tours were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Andrews inadvertently began his next album after finishing a gig at New Orleans’ House of Blues. Possessed by an idea for a song during their encore, he took the band into his Buckjump Studio to get it down. That raw, energy- and adrenaline-filled evening became the creative template for Lifted, his second Blue Note album. Produced by Seefried, the set included guest appearances from Gary Clark, Jr., Lauren Daigle, and the rhythm section from Andrews’ high school marching band. Lifted was issued in April 2022. ~ Thom Jurek