Traditional jazz, second lines, full and small combos!
Laissez les bon temps jazzer!
Call 225-620- 8698 for a sweet party jazz band!
About Us
Birth of the Blowhards
Band leader Sam Irwin picked up his trumpet the day after Allen Toussaint died on November 10, 2015 and began practicing. He was inspired by the brilliant trumpet work of Nicholas Payton on Toussaint's "The Bright Mississippi" and that was the birth of the Blowhards.
We began playing front-yard concerts during the virus days and we're still playing Dixieland trad jazz music in Baton Rouge's lawns. If you love music and bands, we're the group for you.
What's trad jazz?
Traditional jazz is the first jazz. It's the jazz created in New Orleans around 1900 by musicians like Buddy Bolden, Jellyroll Morton, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, and the Original Dixieland Jass Band among others. The Florida Street Blowhards are just carrying on the tradition of the early jazz greats. And the Florida Street Blowhards play Dixieland trad jazz music.
Band Members
The lineup of the Florida Street Blowhards pictured at the top of the page is Ben Herrick, trombone; Gary Stewart, sousaphone; David Seymour, saxophone; Kaleb Melson, bass drum; Sam Irwin, trumpet; Casey Bateman, snare drum; Brandon Schittone, trumpet.
Other musicians in the FSB orbit are Charlie Modenbach, woodwinds, David Seymour, woodwinds; James Bourdier, drums; Brian Forrest, drums; Dale Harris, drums: Tim Ost, drums; Kaleb Melson, drums; Nick Blanchard, drums; Zach Bourque, drums: Ben Herrick, trombone; Chris Belleau, trombone; Miguel Seruntine, trombone/tuba; Terry Byars, piano; John Dupaquier, piano emeritus; John Bishop, banjo; Brian Breen, banjo. Special guests who have performed with the FSB include John Gray, trumpet; Ben Redwine, clarinet; Betsy Braud, woodwinds; Ashley Orlando, vocals. These guys have all been around the Baton Rouge music and bands scene for quite a while.
The Florida Street Blowhards began in March 2016 when clarinetist David Seymour met trumpeter Sam Irwin via social media. We jammed with "play-along" CDs until drummer Zachary Farris-Bourque appeared. Philip Vincent was recruited on bass and Dr. Terry Byars (a well-known local theater and church musician) was wooed from the pulpit to the jazz room. 92-year-old John Dupaquier (late of the Last Straws and the Rampart Street Six) filled in on banjo and piano. And that's how our music started...
Meet the Florida Street Blowhards - Trad Jazz-second Lines: An Exquisite Display of Musical Photography
Hidden History of Louisiana's Jazz Age
$24.00
($4.00 shipping)
Why did Louis Armstrong choose the Fourth of July as his birthday? What did Independence Day mean to southern Blacks in 1901?
How did jazzman Joe Darensbourg of Baton Rouge, the musician who played clarinet on Louis Armstrong’s 1963 smash hit “Hello, Dolly,” encounter not one, but two serial murderers in his long career?
Who was trumpeter Evan Thomas, the man murdered on the bandstand by a jealous husband in the Promised Land neighborhood of Rayne, La.?
The answers are found in Sam Irwin’s new book, The Hidden History of Louisiana’s Jazz Age. Autographed copies $24 plus $4.00 media mail shipping rate in the U.S.
Sam Irwin is the leader of the Florida Street Blowhards.
About Us
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