Loading...
Hometown: Alameda, CA
Label: StudiO FictuS
Website: blueboneexpress.com
Sounds Like: Rebirth Brass Band, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, James Booker, Tom Waits, Louis Armstrong
Genre: Jazz
Oakland-based Blue Bone Express has held a unique place in the San Francisco Bay Area music scene since formed in 2004 by pianist/trumpeter Jara Ra. Their music is a mix of jazz, blues, and R&B, inspired by the deep legacy of New Orleans music culture. Rags and stomps are played and sung effortlessly alongside blues jumps and more modern rock & TV theme covers, as well as a host of original compositions. Their signature sousaphone and rollicking piano sound keeps the party hopping with infectious 2nd line and shuffle rhythms of traditional New Orleans parades. Not a jazz band to sit and sip wine to, Blue Bone Express gets your bones up on the floor and keeps the vibe at an ecstatic high.
"Whether covering a standard or playing an original, whether funky, a dirge, or a rag, Blue Bone Express, aka BBX, infuses its own sound."
Oakland Magazine
“Their eclectic mix of original tunes and old favorites ... guaranteed that even the creakiest knees were flexing and bouncing on the narrow dance floor.”
Kristina Cañizares - Examiner.com
“This isn’t Be-bop or Swing or the New Thing. This is the Real Thing. This is living, breathing, spitting Jazz music. It’s not revival music. It’s not museum music. It’s music inspired by a tradition and informed by it’s own time.”
R. Lee - Underworld Rag
“The coolest jazz brass band in Northern California.”
Delfin Vigil - San Francisco Chronicle
“They are (dare I say) as entertaining as any rock show I've seen in the Bay Area... Overall, this show is a must see ... even if you aren't a big jazz fan.”
Stephanie Shira - SF Bay Area Rock
“Blue Bone Express [is] an eccentric little combo mixing NOLA-style Dixieland with bop, blues and bachelor-pad improvisation... One song and you'll know these people love to play jazz as much as anyone's ever loved anything...”
Thomas S. Roche - Eros eZine
“If there's any hope for the future of [traditional jazz] music it's going to come from musicians like [BBX]... who are willing to do something more with the music... There's nothing hackneyed or contrived in what these guys play. They sound utterly natural doing what they do.”
R. Lee - Blogspot: Underworld Rag
