CONTACT: Brad White
Marketing and Publicity Manager
Center for the Arts, Pepperdine University
24255 Pacific Coast Hwy, Malibu, CA 90263
(310) 506-4055
brad.white@pepperdine.edu
BOX OFFICE: (310) 506-4522
http://arts.pepperdine.edu

Photos are available upon request



PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY
CENTER FOR THE ARTS
President's Choice Series presents

For True Tour

TROMBONE SHORTY
& ORLEANS AVENUE

"A near-deafening, funk-charged blast of percussion, brass, reeds, and guitar distortion that might have knocked the crowd sideways had there been any room to move." --The Washington Post

Saturday, October 20, 2012, 8 p.m.
Smothers Theatre, Pepperdine University
24255 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, CA

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, whose fan base has grown exponentially since the release of their Grammy-nominated 2010 debut album, Backatown, stop at Pepperdine University's Smothers Theatre at 8 p.m. on Saturday, October 20, as part of their current "For True Tour."

Limited tickets, priced at $65, $55, or $40 for the public and $10 for full-time Pepperdine students, are available now by calling (310) 506-4522. Tickets are also available through Ticketmaster at (800) 982-2787. More information: http://arts.pepperdine.edu/ or http://tromboneshorty.com/

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue's latest album, For True, offers substantive proof of their explosive growth, further refining the signature sound Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews has dubbed "Supafunkrock."

"There was excitement from everywhere," says Andrews (who is now 26) of the experience on the road and how it fed into the creation of For True. "We did over 200 shows in the last year and a half, and every night we allowed the music to take us over. Musically and creatively, we wanted to shoot for some different things."

The band--Mike Ballard on bass, Pete Murano on guitar, Joey Peebles on drums, Dan Oestreicher on baritone sax, and Tim McFatter on tenor sax--stirs together old-school jazz, funk, and soul, laced with hard-rock power chords and hip-hop beats, and they have added some tangy new ingredients on For True as they keep pushing the envelope, exploring new musical territory.

"We never sat down and really thought about concepts and what we wanted our music to sound like," Andrews explains. "It's just that, over the years, we allowed each one of the band members to bring their influences and taste in music into our music. Anything we hear or are influenced by, it naturally comes out in what we're trying to do. It's just our sound, and it happened naturally."

Andrews wrote or co-wrote all 14 tracks on the album, including collaborating with the legendary Lamont Dozier on "Encore," while this time playing as much trumpet as trombone, as well as organ, drums, piano, keys, synth bass, and percussion. Indeed, he played every part on the swaying, Latin-tinged "Unc." He has also come into his own as a singer, honoring the hallowed legacy of the great soul men of the 1960s and '70s. Like its predecessor, the album turns on a rare combination of virtuosity and high-energy, party-down intensity.

"On the last record, we just basically did it with my band," Andrews points out, "but we've got a lot of New Orleans people on this new record--the music just called for it. The Rebirth Brass Band, these are all people that helped me grow in my career and taught me different things. And 5th Ward Weebie, who's one of the lead voices in the bounce community, we're like brothers. I'm excited to have those people on there, because they bring a taste of where I come from and where I'm going."

Since Backatown's release, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue have toured nonstop in North America, the U.K., Brazil, Japan, Europe, and Australia. In December of 2010, Andrews drew accolades as musical director of "Red Hot + New Orleans" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The sensational two-night run inspired New York Times senior music critic Jon Pareles to assert, "Trombone Shorty had clearly set out to present New Orleans as a city whose glory days aren't over...it was a signal that the city's music would push ahead."

Andrews has made quite an impression on the critics. "Trombone Shorty is so ready for his close-up," The New York Times wrote, describing the young virtuoso as "a native prodigy destined for breakout success." The San Francisco Chronicle hailed him as "New Orleans' brightest new star in a generation." Rolling Stone raved that "Backatown is both deeply rooted and culturally omnivorous." And The Washington Post described one live performance as "a near-deafening, funk-charged blast of percussion, brass, reeds, and guitar distortion that might have knocked the crowd sideways had there been any room to move."

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue's performances at and during the New Orleans Jazz Fest are legendary. In one day, Andrews sat in for a set of free jazz honoring a recently passed mentor. From there he sat in with Kid Rock. Then to the Gospel Tent for a featured slot with cousin Glenn David Andrews before literally running back to the main stage to close the festival as a special guest of the Neville Brothers.

His respect across a broad spectrum and his musical versatility are further evidenced by his performance resume, playing at events as diverse as Bonnaroo, the Playboy Jazz Festival at Hollywood Bowl, the Montreal, Montreux, and Monterey jazz fests, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in San Francisco, Austin City Limits, Fuji Rock in Japan, Philadelphia Folk Fest, Jam Cruise, assorted blues festivals, and even a reggae festival in Germany. The band spent last summer crisscrossing Europe to perform at festivals from Spain to Slovakia.

On TV, Andrews has appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Good Morning America, Tavis Smiley, the NFL Opening Kickoff pregame event (joining the Dave Matthews Band), and the hit HBO series Tremé, on which he played himself in a recurring role. Along with appearing on Jeff Beck's Les Paul tribute on PBS, he has been a featured guest musician on the latest releases from Eric Clapton, Zac Brown Band, Rod Stewart, Kravitz, and Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars.

Andrews hails from the Tremé neighborhood in New Orleans' 6th Ward, getting his nickname at four years old when he was observed by his older brother James marching in a street parade and wielding a trombone twice as long as the kid was high. Andrews started early, learning how to play drums and what he remembers as "the world's smallest trumpet" at the age of three. By the time he reached six, this prodigy was playing trumpet and trombone in a jazz band led by his brother James, himself a trumpet player of local renown who has been called "Satchmo of the Ghetto."

Not long afterward, Andrews formed his own band with some other musically inclined kids from Tremé, and they became regulars at Jackson Square, with dreams of following in the footsteps of his brother James and the Rebirth Brass Band, learning and carrying on the New Orleans tradition. While not only carrying on that tradition and expanding its boundaries, Andrews has also lent a generous helping hand to the next generation, having given longstanding support to the city's renowned Roots of Music program.

Andrews was also recently honored by being named the youngest member of the NOCCA Foundation board--the foundation behind New Orleans' Center for the Creative Arts where Andrews and several of his band members studied and began collaborating. He is also gearing up his own new foundation aimed at making sure that talented younger players with limited resources can get quality instruments to play. Watch for much more news on that front, as well as a new CD, currently planned for an April 2013 release.

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