Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue

Trombone Shorty has announced a number of key upcoming performances, as well as summer 2025 tour dates with his band Orleans Avenue. Trombone Shorty will be performing at The Super Bowl (FOX) on February 8 in his hometown of New Orleans, playing “America The Beautiful” with Lauren Daigle during the pre-game show. He is also performing at the CBS National Christmas Tree Lighting at the White House, which will broadcast on December 20, and performed last night at the Kennedy Center Honors, to celebrate recipient Arturo Sandoval, which will air on December 22 at 8:30PM ET on CBS / Paramount Plus.

Trombone Shorty also recently earned a fresh GRAMMY Nomination, for his appearance on Live At The 2024 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival by New Breed Brass Band, the New Orleans ensemble led by his nephew, Jenard Andrews (Best Regional Roots Music Album). Trombone Shorty is a GRAMMY-winner and now a four-time nominee: he earned a nomination in the same category last year for his work on New Breed Brass Band’s debut album, Made In New Orleans, which he produced and recorded at his Buckjump studio.

Today he has also announced a summer tour with JJ Grey & Mofro and Dumpstaphunk, stopping at major venues across the country in June and July including LA’s The Greek Theater (June 8), Chicago’s Salt Shed (July 12) and more. Tickets go on sale this Friday, 12/13 (10AM Local). The summer tour is in addition to the recently announced second annual Shorty Gras Tour in March 2025 with Tank and the Bangas. Fresh off a busy year of performances and a planned cultural exchange trip to Cuba, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue will deliver their signature high-energy performances over a three-week run of shows, bringing New Orleans’ famous Mardi Gras party to the East Coast, South and Midwest.

The upcoming appearances and tour announcement arrives amid a packed year for the New Orleans icon and musical ambassador. From January 16-20, he will embark on the fourth Getting Funky in Havana cultural exchange trip to Cuba, alongside Orleans Avenue, young musicians from the Trombone Shorty Foundation, renowned Afro-Cuban star Cimafunk, George Clinton, Taj Mahal, Grace Potter, Yola and Robert Randolph. The cultural exchange will feature performances and collaborations between artists from New Orleans and Cuba, highlighting the deep-rooted musical connections between the two regions.

Over the past year, Trombone Shorty headed tours with Big Boi and headlined historic venues like the Hollywood Bowl. He also appeared at the White House’s Juneteenth Celebration, played a headline set with Lil Wayne at the Roots Picnic, made a special appearance at Madison Square Garden for the Soulshine benefit concert to aid recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and once again closed out the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, a tradition he has led for over a decade.

JJ Grey & Mofro

From his early days playing cover music behind chicken wire at a west side Jacksonville juke joint while still working at a lumberyard, to playing sold-out shows at some of the largest venues and music festivals in the world, JJ Grey has always delivered his soul-honest truths. Since his first album, ‘Blackwater’, back in 2001, Grey has been releasing deeply moving, masterfully written, funkified rock and front porch Southern soul music.

Now, with ‘Olustee’ – his tenth album and first in eight years, and the first he has self-produced – Grey is back, singing his personal stories with universal themes of redemption, rebirth, hard luck, and inner peace. With his music, Grey also celebrates good times with friends, oftentimes mixing the carnal with the cerebral in the very same song. Fueled by his vividly detailed, timeless original songs spun from his life experiences, Grey’s gritty baritone drips with honest passion and testifies with a preacher’s foot-pounding fervor.

With ‘Olustee’, JJ Grey has once again pushed the boundaries of his own creative musical, lyrical and vocal talents, delivering an instant classic. Many of the songs are steeped in the mythical Southern stories of his ancestral Florida home and filled with people from JJ’s life. The songs are told through the eyes of a poet and sung with pure, unvarnished soul. Grey’s message is simple and strong – respect the natural world and always try to live in the moment. And never forget the importance of having a good time!

Dumpstaphunk

Dumpstaphunk stands out amongst New Orleans’ best, cementing themselves as one of the funkiest bands to ever arise from the Crescent City. Born on the Jazz & Heritage Festival stage, and descended from Neville and Meters family bloodlines, these soldiers of funk ignite a deep, gritty groove that dares listeners not to move. Their performances combine ingenious musicianship through complex funk, rock, and jazz arrangements accompanied by soulful melodies and Big Easy traditions. 

The band released their 4th studio album Where Do We Go From Here on April 23, 2021 featuring Marcus King, Trombone Shorty and Chali 2Na on double bronze vinyl, CD and all digital platforms. Dumpstaphunk culled material from many different sources over the past few years, creating during downtime and rare off tour cycle stop-gaps at various studios in New Orleans: some songs were born on-the-spot in the studio, others as a drum beat or a groove at sound-check. A few were simply covers that were already in the band’s live repertoire. The songwriting was largely collaborative, with all band-members contributing their own respective stylistic nuances.  

For the past 17 years, Dumpstaphunk has earned its reputation as the most well-regarded next-generation New Orleans live powerhouse, the type of band whose live shows attract sit-ins from legends like Carlos Santana, Bob Weir and Trombone Shorty. Alongside Tony Hall, Nick Daniels, Alex Wasily, Ashlin Parker and drummer Deven Trusclair, cousins Ivan and Ian Neville have built upon their family’s iconic NOLA legacy as they’ve transformed Dumpstaphunk into the city’s pre-eminent 21st-century funk-fusion export. As a result, recent career highlights include supporting Dave Matthews Band at Madison Square Garden in NYC (2022), Trombone Shorty’s Voodoo Threaudown with Tank and the Bangas, Big Freedia and The Soul Rebels (2022), Allman Family Revival Tour (2022), supporting the Rolling Stones on their home turf at the Superdome in New Orleans (2019), and touring with George Clinton & The Parliament Funkadelic for his farewell tour (2019).

Dueling baselines from Tony Hall and Nick Daniels III set off one of the dirtiest rhythm sections on the planet, while Ivan Neville lights up the Hammond B3 keys and cousin Ian Neville’s funky guitar riffs send the groove into overdrive. Dumpstaphunk tosses around lead vocals and four-part harmonies the way Sly & the Family Stone did, but with three studio albums under their belt, Dumpstaphunk stands on the merit of their own material.

Dumpstaphunk has performed at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival every year since 2001 and continues to tour all over the world. They have performed on hundreds of festival stages like Jam Cruise, Dead & Company’s Playing in the Sand, Lockn Festival, NYC’s Summerstage, Byron Bay Bluesfest and more – and you never know who may appear as a guest on stage with the band on any given night. Guest appearances have included Santana, Bob Weir, Dave Matthews, John Oates, Lucas Nelson, Deen Ween, Blackbyrd McKnight, Jerry Harrison, Marcus King and Nicki Bluhm.