BLUE BEAR LIVE V
A Benefit for Youth Music Education

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue

One of the hottest young bands to emerge from New Orleans, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue is gaining incredible momentum thanks to their dynamite live performances. A prodigy trombonist and brilliant trumpet player, Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews performed as a sideman for U2 and Green Day, Lenny Kravitz, Harry Connick, Jr. and others, and contributed to a GRAMMY award-winning recording (Buckwheat Zydeco's Lay Your Burden Down) and an Oscar-nominated recording (Dr. John's "Down In New Orleans" from the hit Disney film The Princess and the Frog), while cultivating his own band. Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue made several memorable appearances at the NOLA Jazz & Heritage Festival, earned accolades from such musical forebearers as Allen Toussaint and Wynton Marsalis, as well as U2's The Edge, and won praise from The Village Voice, Rolling Stone and Offbeat, which honored the charismatic bandleader with "Performer of the Year." More recently, the band was featured on NPR and received positive press from USA Today and The New York Times. The band is celebrating the release of their new album Backatown, an explosive, homegrown combination of funk, rock, R&B and hip-hop that Trombone Shorty calls "Supafunkrock." Now a six-piece touring phenomenon, Orleans Avenue features Mike Ballard on bass, Pete Murano on guitar, Joey Peebles on drums, Dwayne Williams on percussion and Dan Oestreicher on baritone sax.

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Zigaboo Modeliste

Joseph "Zigaboo" Modeliste is a master drummer, rhythm-innovator, percussionist, New Orleans legend and, arguably, the most highly acclaimed drummer to hail from the Crescent City. A founding member of seminal funk group The Meters, Zigaboo is a master of creating funk grooves and new concepts of funk drumming. His truly unique style has made him a valuable player for such artists as Keith Richards, Dr. John, Robert Palmer, John Fogerty and Harry Connick, Jr. Zigaboo's creativity is a wellspring of funk influence that has spanned more than three decades. His syncopated rhythms and second line funk styles have been sampled, imitated and copied - but never duplicated - for years.

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Ivan Neville

Progeny of New Orleans's famous Neville family, Ivan Neville is a multi-instrumentalist and singer who performed on recordings by numerous artists - including The Rolling Stones, Keith Richards's solo band the X-Pensive Winos, Bonnie Raitt, Robbie Robertson, the Neville Brothers and his father Aaron Neville's solo records - before establishing himself as a bandleader and songwriter in his own right. His first solo album If My Ancestors Could See Me Now produced a Top 40 Billboard hit and a Billboard Hot 100 track that was featured in the film Skin Deep. Ivan's group Dumpstaphunk is winning fans all across the U.S., and is described by Offbeat as "a band entirely worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as The Meters."

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STAR Program Youth Bands

Proceeds from the first Blue Bear Live led to the development of Blue Bear's STAR (Students That Aspire to Rock) Program. What began as a modest guitar instruction program at James Lick Middle School has evolved into an innovative public school music program that serves more than 200 students at James Lick and Rooftop Alternative School. Under the direction of Blue Bear instructors Josh Graves and Mike Rao, students learn the technical aspects of music as well as the history and cultural relevance of contemporary music. Each year, STAR Program students wow the sold-out crowds at Blue Bear Live, and this year they will once again demonstrate that the future of live music performance is in good hands.

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