Event Details (U.S. National Park Service)

★

Special Event

Fee:

Free.

Dates & Times

Date:

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Time:

2:00 PM

Duration:

1 hour

Type of Event

Performance

Virtual/Digital

Description

New Orleans JAZZ NHP celebrates Black History Month

featuring

Wendell Brunious & Steve Pistorius

“Dr. Jazz”

Every February during Black History Month and throughout the year, the National Park Service share stories, rich culture, and an invitation for all Americans to reflect on Black history in parks and communities across the country. More than 400 years of Black history and heritage—including achievements, contributions, and historical journeys—are remembered and commemorated in places preserved for current and future generations.

Here, at the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, we know that the uniquely American artform of Jazz would never have developed without the contributions and experiences of African Americans. And we treasure the native New Orleanians who keep this musical tradition alive.

Trumpeter and vocalist Wendell Brunious boasts a towering musical family tree primarily flowered with trumpets. He is the son of trumpet master John “Picket” (or “Picky”) Brunious Sr. and Nazimova “Chinee” Santiago, the niece of guitarist/banjoist Willie Santiago.

Brunious believes what’s considered the “Brunious sound” all began with his father’s influence. “When my father first started to develop as a trumpet player was in an era before amplification, so you had to play loud enough to hear yourself and to be heard in the band. I kind of think that’s where what some people call the Brunious sound kind of started. That ‘sound’ is being able to interpret ballads when you are also trying to hear the actual words coming out of the end of the trumpet. What was important was the tone, playing in tune, and being able to play nice ballads—not just fast stuff. My daddy used to say this: ‘If you don’t know the melody, you don’t know the song. ‘Bourbon Street Parade,’ ‘Paul Barbarin’s Second Line,’ ‘Hold that Tiger’ and a million other songs have the same form but what segregates the tunes is the melody.”

The talented and dedicated Wendell Brunious credits some of his early development to having worked with the Olympia Brass Band under the direction of his cousin, bandleader/saxophonist Harold Dejan. Extremely knowledgeable in the music’s tradition and history, Brunious enjoys sprinkling his conversation with advisory quotes from his father and other artists who have crossed his musical path through his decades-long career.

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