KEENE, N.H.-Mardi Gras, the last time to enjoy good food and drink before the 40 days of Lent, falls on Tuesday, Feb. 17.
You don’t have to go to New Orleans to enjoy the city’s joyful music as The Celebration Brass Band of VT and Folksoul Band will bring the spirit of the Crescent City to New England with a Mardi Gras party at Nova Arts, 48 Emerald St., Saturday, Feb. 14. The doors open at 7 p.m. and music starts at 7:30 p.m.
Eric Gagne, the programming director at Nova Arts, says the venue has hosted Mardi Gras parties for the past four years. The Folksoul Band, a six-piece group from Greenfield, New Hampshire, has played every year. They shared the stage with the Celebration Brass Band from Brattleboro last year and will do so again on Saturday.
Both bands celebrate the music of the Big Easy; music that has been called “a joyful noise with history in every note.”
A celebration and a dirge
True to its name, the Celebration Brass Band has brought its high-energy sounds to Brattleboro’s events and parades since founder and leader Peter Simoneaux started the group in 2009.
Simoneaux, who plays bass drum and sings with the band, grew up in New Orleans. This gives him a real connection to brass band music, which is a mainstay in New Orleans and has been featured in street parades and jazz funerals since the 1800s.
Surprisingly, Simoneaux did not get involved in music until after he left New Orleans in the late ’70s.
“I started the brass band on the cusp of the Obama administration,” Simoneaux said. “It started as a workshop that went on for a couple of years, and that was the genesis for the band. It’s evolved over the years and continues to do so.”
Simoneaux and some of his band members also play in the People’s Resistance Band, which has performed at various street protests in Brattleboro over the past year. So many musicians have come out to participate in the protests, Simoneaux has once again started workshops similar to the one that led to the formation of the Brass Band.
He leads a New Orleans music session on the second Tuesday of each month, and then there is The Resistance Band session on the fourth Tuesday, led by Dan DeWalt, who also leads the People’s Resistance Band. Workshops take place at the 118 Elliot gallery in Brattleboro from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
As for the Celebration Brass Band, its members look forward to playing at Nova Arts, with Simoneaux noting that last year’s performance was “a blast” and the first time playing Keene in his almost-20-year career.
The number of musicians in the group varies depending on the event.
“There will be nine of us on Feb. 14 for this Mardi Gras Party at Nova Arts — myself and Josh Francis on bass drum and snare and full drum kit,” he said. “My wife, Linda Simoneaux, and Tim Ellis will be on sousaphones with Dan DeWalt and Bobby Thies on trombones, Scott Sizer and Samuel Garcia on trumpets, and Ron Kelley on tenor saxophone.”
The event will start with the band parading through the crowd. Tim Ellis will be parade marshal.
“We’ll be playing a traditional New Orleans dirge in memory of those who’ve lost their lives to agents of the current ‘Random Deportation Administration,’” Simoneaux said. “A New Orleans dirge is very slow and powerful. We did this last year, and it really blew people away.”
The musicians will then kick off the celebration with a rousing set of New Orleans brass band music, which will range from old spirituals to modern jazz and tunes from the swing era. The Celebration Brass Band will close with a second line out into the audience with Linda Simoneaux as parade marshal.
‘A root culture for the entire country’
The Folksoul Band will then take over, with a set of spirited and danceable music from New Orleans.
Fred Simmons, trombone player of the band, founded the Folksoul Band in 2007 as an offshoot of his American roots group Tattoo.
“The Folksoul band came together to play for Mardi Gras because I was getting inspired by my connection to New Orleans music,” said Simmons. “I’ve been down there three times with my trombone.”
The band played its first show at a Mardi Gras party in Peterborough, New Hampshire, and has since provided the soundtrack to many Mardi Gras celebrations. The group includes Tara Greenblatt on drums, Ramsay Thomas on bass, Leslie Vogel on piano and accordion, and Walden Whitham on saxophone and flute.
“We try to maintain a positive spirit,” Simmons said. “A lot of our tunes are by folks who grew out of that culture like Fats Domino, Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, and the Neville Brothers. I have been writing throughout my career, so we have some originals.
Simmons said the musicians are looking forward to returning to what has become an annual gig at Nova Arts and encourage all to come out.
“We are a great dance band, and so is the Celebration Brass Band,” he said.
He also stressed that “it is important that we bring New Orleans culture to New England, because it’s a root culture for the entire country.”
“America has pretty much based its music on New Orleans music, which grows out of the uniting of Black American culture with white American culture,” Simmons said. “In the 1950s, when rock ’n’ roll was born, it was a burst of the harmonizing of the two cultures.
“It was a great thing and an antidote to the politics that are going on now and trying to divide us again,” he said.
This is an all-ages show, and advance tickets are available at novaarts.org. If you can’t afford to pay, there is an Access For All option as a ticket purchase option. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the music starts at 7:30. Seating is limited. For more information on the workshops, contact Peter Simoneaux at peter.simoneaux@gmail.com.
This Arts item by Sheryl Hunter was written for The Commons.