The Stooges Brass Band started in 1996 when band leader Walter Ramsey combined members of two rival high school marching bands. After seeing the
Rebirth Brass Band play, Ramsey was inspired to experiment with merging hip hop, funk, and R & B, influences into a traditional New Orleans brass band framework. The band name evolved out of their stage antics, when one of the band members referred to the rest as “a bunch of stooges.” Early members included
Trombone Shorty,
’Big’ Sam Williams, Drew Baham, Ellis Joseph, Sammy Cyrus, and Dwayne Williams. Over the next decade, the Stooges Brass Band gained a reputation in local clubs and
second line parades. Early successes included recording with
Jessica Simpson, and production work for
ESPN.
Red Bull Street Kings competition In October 2010, the Stooges Brass Band won the
Red Bull Street Kings competition. The event featured four prominent brass bands in an elimination-style competition. Red Bull flew the band out to their L.A. studios to record an EP and video music series with hip hop producer
Mannie Fresh. The event was covered by the
Documentary Channel, who released a documentary in 2011.
Touring In April 2011, the Stooges Brass Band won the Best Contemporary Brass Band award from the Big Easy Music Awards. The band began touring more aggressively in 2012, playing
Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, the
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Edinburgh Jazz Festival,
High Sierra Music Festival,
Essence Music Festival,
Lincoln Center Out Of Doors Series,
South by Southwest, and others. In June 2012, the band was selected by the U.S. State Department to serve as cultural ambassadors on a tour to
Pakistan. They performed in
Lahore,
Islamabad,
Karachi, and
Hyderabad.
Can't Be Faded In 2020, the Stooges became the first brass band in New Orleans to author a book with the release of
Can’t Be Faded: Twenty Years in the New Orleans Brass Band Game, published by the
University Press of Mississippi. Co-authored with Canadian music scholar
Kyle DeCoste, the book chronicles the careers of sixteen past and present band members and documents the city’s brass band scene at the turn of the twenty-first century. ==Discography==