American music and New Orleans Mardi Gras culture have been inextricably linked for 200 years, ever since the imported, enslaved African people, mixing with a similarly oppressed native American culture, found free expression on Congo Square in New Orleans, where they were permitted to congregate for one day a week, two centuries ago.

The spirit and rhythms expressed by this new American culture evolved into the Jazz and Rock’n’roll of the 20 th century. This American history has inspired the Folksoul Band, which came together to create a Mardi Gras party, which we have done every year since, as our repertoire has expanded to include offshoots and branches. We try to bring this original source of American music to the New England audience in as pure a form as we can manage, allowing for our own inspirations and creativity. We always make room for that.

We have a long and varied history that includes street performing and second line parading for both princes and paupers around the country in addition to many clubs, fairs and festivals. It’s a tradition we hope to keep alive.

We are: Richard Doherty – Guitars, vocals Tara Greenblatt – Drums, vocals Fred Simmons – Trombone, tambourine, vocals Ramsey Thomas – Stand-up bass Leslie Vogel – Piano and accordion, vocals Walden Whitham – Saxophone, flute, rubboard, vocals

The Celebration Brass Band is Southern VT’s signature ensemble for the distinctively vibrant music that we know as the New Orleans Brass Band sound!

Since 2009, under the leadership of New Orleans native and Langdon NH resident Peter Simoneaux, the Celebration Brass Band has become familiar to Brattleboro area audiences through their performances at numerous Gallery Walks, the Strolling of the Heifers, 4th of July parades, and a host of other local community events. With band founder and director Simoneaux on bass drum and vocals and spouse and partner Linda Simoneaux on sousaphone, vocals and parade marshaling duties, CBB features a dynamic cast of Brattleboro area musicians, including co-directors Walter Slowinski (Woodpeckers, Butterfly Swing) and Ron Kelley (Hot Noodles, Bread & Puppet) on saxophones, Dan DeWalt (Simba, Creacion, Mambo Trio) on trombone, Anders Burrows (Alafia, Aura Shards) and Sam Johnson on trumpets, Tim Ellis on sousaphone and various players on snare drum or kit.

Traditionally, since the late 1800s, New Orleans Brass Band music has been the music of jazz funerals and street parades in New Orleans, the style that gave birth to the careers of Buddy Bolden, Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, and countless other musicians who have helped define the history of Jazz. Over the past 25 years, the New Orleans brass band revival has exploded in popularity, to the point where it has become the dominant musical force in the city, embracing both tradition and innovation, old forms and new. It is the mission of the Celebration Brass Band to bring this joy & energy to weddings, funerals, and other private & public functions throughout northern New England, to represent both the traditional and contemporary strains of the New Orleans brass band sound, and to discover the common threads between the New Orleans brass band genre, and those of modern jazz, and the wider Afro-Creole musical diaspora.

Doors are at 7pm and music will begin at 730 sharp! Seating is limited and first come first served. All ages!