Bryan Hooten

No BS! Brass just dropped its fourth studio album, RVA All Day, here in Richmond with a pair of shows at Balliceaux and The Camel and will be traveling to DC for an NPR Tiny Desk Concert on Thursday, May 23rd. On Friday, May 24th, we’ll be headlining Friday Cheers on Brown’s Island with our friends, Murphy’s Kids and Former Champions. On May 26th, Fight the Big Bull comes out of hibernation to reprise its Sounds of the South project at the Sydney Opera House with Justin Vernon, Megafaun. No BS! Brass hits the road for a tour of the Northeast (more info to follow soon) in late June. In early July, I’ll be spending a few days in Montreal with my good friend Rachel Therrien and the Jazz Composers Series. More No BS! dates in July culminate in an August 8th performance at Lincoln Center Out of Doors in NYC! Stay in touch, y’all!

Happy New Year, y’all! 2013 is shaping up to be an exciting year. No BS! Brass just wrapped up recording an EP of music by Charles Mingus.  You can expect release of that and our fourth full-length album and more goodness later this year. This Friday I’ll join some of my closest friends for RVA Solo Night at ForInstance Gallery and try out some new music for solo trombone. In March, I’ll be traveling to Doha, Qatar to take part in VCU’s Tasmeem Art and Design Conference where I’ll be collaborating with some stellar visual artists. In April I’ll be serving as one of two guest artists at the Mars Hill New Music Festival at Mars Hill College in Asheville, NC. The other guest artist is my good friend, Emily Hindrichs, an absolutely stunning coloratura soprano. I’ll be writing some new music for that meeting as well. There are exciting things in the works for Matthew E. White and Spacebomb but I can’t talk about all that just yet. Hope to see you around!

Thursday night, No BS! Brass returns to Balliceaux to host its monthly dance party. We’re fresh off a successful performance in NYC and taping for Planet Money on NPR so you can expect crushing beats and expert analysis. On Friday, we travel to Festy in Charlottesville, VA to hang with our friends at Devil’s Backbone Brewing. On Saturday and Sunday, we’ll be doing a live DVD taping at a top secret location. You can holler at me for tickets to the taping. See you on the scene!

Thursday, October 4
No BS! Brass
Balliceaux
203 N. Lombardy St. Richmond, VA
21+
Free
10pm

Friday, October 5th
No BS! Brass
The Festy
Nelson County, VA

Next Sunday, No BS! Brass will travel to NYC to play Rockwood Music Hall as part of Dave Douglas’ Festival of New Trumpet Music. We’ll be sharing the stage with the fantastic new music ensemble yMusic. I got to hear yMusic at last year’s MusicNow Festival in Cincinnati and they were fantastic. The show starts at 7 pm and you can acquire tickets right here.

I have played a lot of Halo. My friends from Birmingham, Alabama and I used to sit in the basement and shoot at each other for hours and hours and hours. I always thought the score to Halo was particularly well crafted and now I occasionally play the opening theme on piano for my Music Theory students to dictate (dorian mode, y’all!). However, it was not until a couple of years ago that I realized that this opening theme from seems to take it’s cue from one of my favorite pieces of art music, Ligeti’s Cello Sonata. First, check out the first eight notes of the Martin O’Donnell’s Halo theme:

Now, check out the first eight notes (after the double-stops) of the first movement of Ligeti’s Cello Sonata as played by Juan Mateo Revilla.

I report. You decide.

As a member of the Spacebomb horns (scroll around for more pics), I’ll be hitting the road this October to play some shows with Matthew E. White’s One Incantation Under God and Mountain Goats in the U.S. and Canada. Matthew did the horn arrangements for the new Mountain Goats record and is revving up to put out his debut LP this fall so the tour pairing was a no-brainer. Check out the dates below. Hope to see y’all on the road!

October

9 - The National, Richmond, VA
10 - The Ottobar, Baltimore, MD
11 - Theatre of the Living Arts, Philadelphia, PA
14 - Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
15 - Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY
18 - House of Blues , Boston, MA
19 - The Haunt, Ithaca, NY
20 - Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto, ON, Canada
22 - Ladies Literary Club, Grand Rapids, MI
23 - Pabst Theatre, Milwaukee, WI
24 - The Varsity Theatre, Minneapolis, MN
26 - Blue Moose Taphouse, Iowa City, IA
27 - The Vic Theatre, Chicago, IL

No BS! follows up its recent tour of VA and NC with several local shows this week. On Thursday, we’ll return to one of our favorite haunts, Balliceaux to preside over a pre-weekend dance party. On Friday we play a top-secret pool party in the early evening then head straight to The Camel for the Mingus Awareness Project. This year, the MAP features several small groups, including Hooten Levin Jones + Kuhl as well as one big one, No BS! Brass. We’ll be performing Jelly Roll, arranged by yours truly, Better Git Hit in Your Soul, arranged by Taylor Barnett and Invisible Lady, arranged by David Hood. On Saturday, we collaborate with the hilarious Richmond Comedy Coalition for Richmond Famous at Gallery 5, a production that features members of No BS! telling stories and members of the RCC performing improv comedy inspired by those stories. We might play a few tunes, as well. Come check us out!

Thursday, July 19
No BS! Brass
Balliceaux
203 N. Lombardy St. Richmond, VA
21+
Free
10pm

Friday, July 20th
Mingus Awareness Project w/ No BS! Brass and Hooten Levin Jones + Kuhl
The Camel
1621 W. Broad St. Richmond, VA
all ages
$7
9pm

Saturday, July 21st
Richmond Comedy Coalition: Richmond Famous w/ No BS! Brass
Gallery 5
200 W. Marshall St. RVA
$7
8:30pm