Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue

Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. — With frontman Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews at the helm, the celebrated New Orleans funk, jazz and brass group, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, will return to the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall on Sunday, October 1, 2017 in support of the new album Parking Lot Symphony, the Blue Note Records debut by the beloved bandleader, singer, songwriter and horn-blower. Tickets for Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue go on sale to the public this Friday, April 28 at 10 a.m. A digital copy of Parking Lot Symphony, also released this Friday will accompany each online ticket purchase.

Part Jimi Hendrix, part James Brown and all New Orleans, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews is the bandleader and frontman of Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, a hard-edge funk band that employs brass-band beats, rock dynamics and improvisation in a jazz tradition. NPR hailed him as “New Orleans’ brightest new star in a generation,” and New York Magazine wrote that “Trombone Shorty takes in a century-plus worth of sounds – ragtime and jazz and gospel and soul and R&B and hip-hop – and attacks everything he plays with festive fervour.”

The dynamic performer got his name when he picked up his instrument at four (“My parents pushed me toward trombone because they didn’t need another trumpet player,” Andrews laughs). By eight, he led his own band in parades, hall and even bars: “They’d have to lock the door so the police couldn’t come in.” Promoters would try to hand money to his older cousins, but they’d kindly redirect them to the boy. In his teens, Andrews played shows abroad with the Neville Brothers. Fresh out of high school (New Orleans Center for Creative Arts) he joined Lenny Kravitz’s band.

Today, the trombonist is a graceful and gritty bandleader celebrated for his ability to fuse old and new styles of jazz into a genre he’s dubbed “Supafunkrock.” In 2011, Andrews’ album Backatown (Verve) was nominated for a GRAMMY award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album and his virtuosity and high-energy live shows have drawn unanimous raves worldwide with Rolling Stone calling him a “must-see act.” He was named to Forbes’ “30 Under 30” Class of 2016 for Music along with Selena Gomez, The Weeknd and Jon Batiste. His illustrated autobiography for young readers, Trombone Shorty, was named a 2016 Caldecott Honor Book by the American Library Association. And Andrews made his feature film debut in 2015 – using his trombone to voice the iconic sound of the adult characters in the animated box office smash The Peanuts Movie.