Trombone Shorty Gets Back in the Game at Shorty Gras

Shorty has a new song and an album due out at Jazz Fest; will we hear any of it Saturday?

The Krewe of Freret’s Shorty Gras on Saturday night will serve as a kind of coming out party for Trombone Shorty. Many artists worked to stay in the public eye when the pandemic forced everybody off the road and out of the clubs, but Shorty seemed to lay low. Recently he appeared in a Folgers Coffee ad, but he didn’t release new music or videos, which added to the intrigue of the Shorty Gras show.

The show at Mardi Gras World starts after Freret rolls, and it includes headliners Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue with Big Freedia, Mannie Fresh, Tank and the Bangas (playing a covers set), Raj Smoove, Khris Royal, Lil Jodeci, Original Pinettes Brass Band, Fresh x Reckless, and special guests Boyfriend, Hasizzle, Joshua Starkman and more. Many of the participants will also ride in the parade, which features Shorty and Boyfriend floats.

The question of what Shorty was up to the past few years was answered this week with the release of a video for “Come Back,” the first single from his upcoming album, Lifted, due out April 29. The song picks up threads from Say This to That and Parking Lot Symphony by consciously presenting Shorty as part of the classic R&B lineage with horns that reference Earth, Wind & Fire, a falsetto that brings Curtis Mayfield to mind, and a wah-wah guitar that made countless soul tracks psychedelic in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. I still look forward to hearing him in a more contemporary context, but it’s hard to argue with the results.

Big Freedia stayed very busy during the pandemic time, recording and release new music regularly. Her Louder EP came out days after the country shut down to touring in 2020, but Freedia continued to release new music and videos, including Big Freedia’s Smokin’ Santa Christmas, BDE, and just a month ago, “Hold Up.”

Producer Mannie Fresh also has a new release of sorts. He has a guest spot along with Big Freedia and Dee-1 on the Galactic track “Act Like You Know” for the “Take Me to the River” project.

Tank and the Bangas have also been busy. They released the EP Friend Goals and have a new album, Red Balloon, due out May 13. The first track from it, “No ID,” is out now, and even though they’re known for their original material, in 2020 they brought in musical friends including PJ Morton, Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph, Maggie Koerner, Sweet Crude’s Sam Craft and Alexis Marceaux, and many more to perform a version of the Burt Bacharach-Hal David classic, “What the World Needs Now.”