Category: Visual and Performing Arts

Earlier this year, members of Michigan Tech’s Workshop Brass Band got a taste of the jazz musician’s life on the road.

Huskies tested their mettle by embarking on a five-day road trip to New Orleans. Even more than that, they discovered — through practice, through performance, through instruction — how to be a musician’s musician by being faithful to the original music, open to learning and willing to make mistakes.

Adam Meckler, associate professor and director of jazz studies, and visiting instructor Drew Kilpela led 16 jazz students on a 2,000-mile odyssey that began on New Year’s Day 2024. Meckler coordinated gigs, workshops with jazz legends and opportunities for Tech students to teach high school band students. The journey began with a rehearsal before the musicians set out. What they learned on the road can’t be taught in a classroom.

Learning By Ear

With Meckler “driving the bus,” the Workshop Brass Band couldn’t have been in better hands. A master musician and teacher with an extensive background in classical and jazz education, he’s the quintessential band leader, with 20 years of experience playing nationally and internationally as a top-call trumpeter with Youngblood Brass Band, Cory Wong, the Hornheads, and Steve Cole. A prolific songwriter, he leads the Adam Meckler Orchestra, an 18-piece big band.

At Tech, Meckler encourages his students to learn music by ear. For many first-year band students, this concept can be daunting.

Understanding that many of his students have come to Tech from small, underfunded music programs, Meckler encourages his first-years to join the Workshop Brass Band in order to gain confidence and experience. In the band, he introduces them to Black American music, or BAM, a term advanced by contemporary trumpeter Nicholas Payton. “Black American music is wildly expressive music,” Meckler said, and this expressivity helps his students learn to “jump off a musical cliff” and not worry about how they land. Many of his Workshop Brass Band students go on to join larger bands at Tech and become leaders in their sections. Meckler said one of his students, Haylah Buell ’24, is a perfect representation of this musical growth mindset.

Buell has been a part of Tech’s band program her entire undergraduate career. A senior electrical engineering technology student, she’s the lead alto saxophone player and works part-time as the Michigan Tech Jazz program’s jazz librarian. “Haylah has been a huge part of building community through a jazz broomball team, after-hour hangs and other events,” said Meckler.

Buell said the New Orleans trip taught her what it’s really like to be part of a band on tour, describing two-hour gigs played after six hours of driving: “Everyone was exhausted and running on pure adrenaline, but it was all worth it.”

Of New Orleans, Buell described sitting at Café Du Monde eating beignets as a brass band played out front. While she intellectually knew she was going to see live bands perform on the streets of New Orleans, a moment that first morning brought it powerfully to life. Playing a solo, the band’s saxophone player walked down the middle of the group of Huskies, “looking at each of us in a way of talking to us through his music,” she described.

As the days went on, the students met the founder and leader of the Stooges Brass Band, Walter Ramsey, performed new songs such as Ramsey’s “Wind It Up,” and discovered how the culture of New Orleans is a lifestyle, Buell said. “The music we play is more than fun and exciting. It has history and meaning. It’s how people make a living; it’s how they worship.”

Learning By Heart

Meckler makes sure his students understand the cultural and historical roots of New Orleans brass band music, explaining how it started in funeral music. “Brass band music historically started with a dirge,” he said. “It was somber. Meditative. But the second line (when the casket is lowered) is celebratory.” This is why the celebratory nature of today’s New Orleans jazz music doesn’t belie its funereal roots to the average listener. Bands like the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Rebirth Brass Band were among the first to take it from street parades to the stages of festivals, bars and rock venues.

Bass drummer Jos Olson ’26 perceived this connection deeply. Olson recalls the Workshop Brass Band playing their show at the Oyster Bar in St. Louis, Missouri, driving back from New Orleans. He felt it was his first real gig as a musician. The feedback from the crowd made the audio production and technology major feel both intensely proud of the band and grateful for the opportunity to play for the crowd. What’s more, the show happened to fall on Jan. 6 — marking the three-year anniversary of his grandfather’s passing. “My grandpa was a jazz drummer and my biggest inspiration,” Olson said. “It felt like that show was for him.”

And Olson is right. Jazz music is all about legacy, hard work and heart. On the trip, he experienced how New Orleans culture is heavily rooted in music. “Whether it’s traditional jazz, brass band music or any other type — everywhere you go there is music. And if there’s music, there’s a crowd,” he said. “No matter where the bands were, what time it was, what the weather was like — there were people out listening to the bands, singing along, making it clear that they love the music and the culture.”

Play Michigan Tech Workshop Brass Band — Grazing in the Grass (live on the street in New Orleans) video

Michigan Tech Workshop Brass Band — Grazing in the Grass (live on the street in New Orleans)

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Watch Jos Olson’s video of Michigan Tech’s Workshop Brass Band playing “Grazing in the Grass” on the streets of New Orleans.

Many traditional brass band songs — like “I’ll Fly Away,” “Lord, Lord, Lord,” and “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” —are rooted in gospel music. “If you had told me two years ago I’d be listening to religious music regularly today, I would have never believed you,” Olson said. “You don’t have to be religious to understand the importance of music … it still touches you in a way that nothing else can.”

Learning By Doing

Workshop Brass Band trombone player Ethan Deur ’25, a senior majoring in human factors, said his favorite part of the trip was playing on the streets of New Orleans. “For the last four years I’ve been a part of this band, and playing on the street has always been described as this major event for brass bands,” said Deur. “Back when I started, I never figured I’d get the chance to play there, so to see that come true was crazy. There’s a different energy from playing concerts to playing the streets.”

Deur was grateful for the chance to learn from legends of the NOLA scene. “We met with Walter Ramsey (the band leader of Stooges Brass Band), Eric Gordon (trumpet player for Rebirth Brass Band), and Miles Lyons (sousaphone player for Youngblood Brass Band),” he said. These players taught the group “a lot about the backstory of their music and how they came up in the city and culture. They also taught us some ways to make our music more authentic.”

Part of this authenticity was learned by rebuilding songs. The students had already learned these traditional brass band gospel hymns from the early 1900s, and even some 1960s Temptations songs, but Lyons taught them how to restructure them. The students later demonstrated these new arrangements by performing on Frenchman Street and Washington Square. Meckler said the locals were surprised to see Midwestern college students playing their music, but the pleasure of and acceptance by the crowds confirmed what Meckler believes to the highest goal of performance: honoring the music and its roots. “We were there in good faith to learn,” he said. “We were there because we love this music.”

Respecting Black American music is paramount to Meckler and his students. One of Meckler’s proudest moments was when Ramsey, a jazz legend, held up his cell phone and recorded the band playing his Stooges Brass Band songs “Old Man” and “Bourbon Street Parade” in his studio to share with fellow musicians.

“Our playing on the street the day before, though extremely fun and enjoyable in real time, sparked quite the discussion online,” said Meckler, referring to a since-deleted Facebook post by an unknown person at their Frenchman Street performance, in which commenters debated who should and should not be performing New Orleans brass band music. But when the Huskies left Ramsey’s studio that day, Meckler got a message from Gordon thanking him for spreading the culture of New Orleans music to his students. Meckler continues to remind and reassure his students that “real brass band musicians in New Orleans are glad we love their music and want to learn it. ‘The internet isn’t real life’ is something I’ve been saying a lot to them since then,” he said.

Learning By Teaching

During their journey, the Huskies taught jazz workshops at two schools in Wisconsin and Biloxi High School in Mississippi. At Biloxi, the students met Mark Mitchell, a Tech alum and jazz program donor. Mitchell rehearses with the Biloxi High School Band, which has a robust jazz program because of strong donations from Tech jazz alumni. “Workshop Brass Band played for Biloxi High’s students first, then we taught them to play a tune by ear,” said Meckler. They taught “Hurricane George” to the high school students in both Wisconsin and Mississippi.

At the Oyster Bar in St. Louis, the Workshop Brass Band students jammed with a local drummer from the Funky Butt Brass Band. This was yet another exhilarating moment for Meckler and Kilpela, as they watched their students make connections with St. Louis musicians who also love New Orleans music. 

After returning from their epic musical journey, Workshop Brass Band students showcased their new skills and educated the wider Michigan Tech community about New Orleans music at this year’s jazz Mardi Gras event on Feb. 8 at the Rozsa Center. Lessons learned through practice, performance and life on the road gave each band member a new appreciation of their responsibility as musicians: to mindfully honor the cultural heritage of the music they love to play.

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