{"id":3535,"date":"2022-02-26T14:24:35","date_gmt":"2022-02-26T19:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rhythmnation.online\/?p=3535"},"modified":"2022-02-26T14:37:39","modified_gmt":"2022-02-26T19:37:39","slug":"trombone-shorty-drops-new-album-entitled-lifted-and-new-single-come-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rhythmnation.online\/index.php\/2022\/02\/26\/trombone-shorty-drops-new-album-entitled-lifted-and-new-single-come-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Trombone Shorty Drops New Album Entitled, ‘Lifted’ And New Single, “Come Back”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was after midnight when Trombone Shorty<\/strong> stepped offstage at the House of Blues in New Orleans, but he wasn\u2019t done playing yet. Not by a long shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had an idea for a new song right after the show,\u201d says Shorty, \u201cso the band and I decided to go straight into the studio and record it that night. We were still sweaty and buzzing from the energy of the gig, and we definitely carried that vibe into the session with us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take a listen to Lifted<\/em><\/strong>, Trombone Shorty\u2019s second release for Blue Note Records, and you\u2019ll hear that same ecstatic energy coursing through the entire collection. Recorded at Shorty\u2019s own Buckjump Studio with producer Chris Seefried (Fitz and the Tantrums, Andra Day), the album finds the GRAMMY-nominated NOLA icon and his bandmates tapping into the raw power and exhilarating grooves of their legendary live show, channeling it all into a series of tight, explosive performances that blur the lines between funk, soul, R&B, and psychedelic rock. The writing is bold and self-assured, standing up to hard times and loss with grit and determination, and the playing is muscular to match, mixing pop gleam with hip-hop swagger and second line abandon. Wild as all that may sound, Lifted <\/em>is still the work of a master craftsman, and the album\u2019s nimble arrangements and judicious use of special guests\u2014from Gary Clark Jr. and Lauren Daigle to the rhythm section from Shorty\u2019s high school marching band\u2014ultimately yields a collection that\u2019s as refined as it is rapturous, one that balances technical virtuosity and emotional release in equal measure as it celebrates music\u2019s primal power to bring us all together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think this is the closest we\u2019ve ever gotten to bottling up the live show and putting it on a record,\u201d says Shorty, whose audiences have grown exponentially in recent years. \u201cNormally when I\u2019m in the studio, I\u2019m trying to make the cleanest thing I can, but this time around, I told everybody to really cut loose, to perform like they were onstage at a festival.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If anybody knows their way around a festival, it\u2019s Trombone Shorty. Born Troy Andrews, he got his start (and nickname) earlier than most: at four, he made his first appearance at Jazz Fest performing with Bo Diddley; at six, he was leading his own brass band; and by his teenage years, he was hired by Lenny Kravitz to join the band he assembled for his Electric Church World Tour. Shorty\u2019s proven he\u2019s more than just a horn player, though. Catch a gig, open the pages of the New York Times <\/em>or Vanity Fair<\/em>, flip on any late-night TV show and you\u2019ll see an undeniable star with utterly magnetic charisma, a natural born showman who can command an audience with the best of them. Since 2010, he\u2019s released four chart topping studio albums; toured with everyone from Jeff Beck to the Red Hot Chili Peppers; collaborated across genres with Pharrell, Bruno Mars, Mark Ronson, Foo Fighters, ZHU, Zac Brown, Normani, Ringo Starr, and countless more; played Coachella, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Newport Folk, Newport Jazz, and nearly every other major festival; performed four times at the GRAMMY Awards, five times at the White House, on dozens of TV shows, and at the star-studded Sesame Street Gala, where he was honored with his own Muppet; launched the Trombone Shorty Foundation to support youth music education; and received the prestigious Caldecott Honor for his first children\u2019s book. Meanwhile in New Orleans, Shorty now leads his own Mardi Gras parade atop a giant float crafted in his likeness, hosts the annual Voodoo Threauxdown shows that have drawn guests including Usher, Nick Jonas, Dierks Bentley, Andra Day, and Leon Bridges to sit in with his band, and has taken over the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival\u2019s hallowed final set, which has seen him closing out the internationally renowned gathering after performances by the likes of Neil Young, the Black Keys, and Kings of Leon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI owe all that to my mother,\u201d says Shorty. \u201cShe passed recently, but she continued to inspire me right up until she transitioned, and that\u2019s why I put a picture of her holding me up at a second line on the cover of this album. She lifted me up my whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As if his New Orleans roots weren\u2019t already deep enough, Shorty decided to take over a recording studio in the Lower Garden District after the release of his latest album, 2017\u2019s Seefried-produced Parking Lot Symphony<\/em>. Dubbing the space Buckjump in a nod to the second lines he grew up playing in, Shortly immediately set about converting the studio into a freewheeling sonic laboratory, one where he and his friends could push themselves creatively without any artistic or commercial restraints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving my own studio meant that the band and I could capture stuff in the moment any time we were feeling inspired,\u201d says Shorty. \u201cIt meant that we could take chances and experiment. I could call the guys up with an idea in the middle of the night and they\u2019d say, \u2018We\u2019ll meet you there in an hour!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That sense of excitement and liberation is palpable on Lifted<\/em>, which opens with the addictive \u201cCome Back.\u201d Fueled by a bottom-heavy rhythm section, buoyant keys, and bright flashes of brass, the track pairs a hip-hop groove with hard rock energy as Shorty delivers silky smooth vocals that float effortlessly above the instrumental fray. As its title might suggest, the song is a reckoning with loss and regret, but like much of the album, it refuses to surrender to disappointment, keeping its chin held high as it presses forward and fights for what it wants. The effervescent \u201cWhat It Takes\u201d gets profoundly funky as it celebrates the strength and growth that can emerge from times of struggle, while the bittersweet \u201cForgiveness\u201d leans into the band\u2019s R&B side as it works to move on from pain and betrayal, and the blistering \u201cI\u2019m Standing Here\u201d (which features a mind-bending guitar solo from Gary Clark Jr.) rushes headlong into the maelstrom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI grew up watching wrestling as a kid,\u201d Shorty says with a laugh, \u201cand I if I was a wrestler, \u2018I\u2019m Standing Here\u2019 would be the song they played when I came into the ring. It\u2019s all about standing tall no matter what life throws at you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shorty makes sure to celebrate the good times on the album, too, reveling in the joy of love and friendship and family throughout. The spirited \u201cMight Not Make It Home\u201d commits to letting go and living in the moment; the playful \u201cMiss Beautiful\u201d embraces the thrill of desire while offering a twist on the second line tradition, with an electric bass stepping in for the tuba; and the feel-good \u201cEverybody In The World\u201d (which features the New Breed Brass Band) finds common ground in our universal desire for love and acceptance. But it\u2019s perhaps the electrifying title track, which lands somewhere between Earth, Wind & Fire and Shorty\u2019s old tourmate Lenny Kravitz that best encapsulates the spirit of the album, wrapping earnest emotion in a high-octane package that offers you no choice but to move your body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe whole time we were making Lifted<\/em>, I couldn\u2019t help but think about how much fun it would be to get onstage and play it for an audience,\u201d Shorty recalls. \u201cUsually when I make an album, I record the songs first and figure out how we\u2019re going to present them live afterwards, but with this record I was in the studio imagining the lights flashing on the hits and the audience singing everything back to us. I could see the whole thing in my head.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Trombone Shorty, the show never ends. Not by a long shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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