With St. Louisans stuck in their homes as they comply with stay-at-home orders to prevent the coronavirus from spreading, the city’s musicians are disconnected from music-loving fans.
But a couple of horn players, who happen to be roommates, have found a way to reach an audience – from a safe distance. For the past few weeks, trombone player Dominique Burton and tuba player Benjamin Kosberg have hit the streets of their Tower Grove South neighborhood to deliver homebound neighbors some New Orleans-style brass.
“This whole lockdown’s got everybody going stir-crazy,” Burton said while walking down Juniata Street. “It’s just good to get out, stretch your legs and do what you love.”
Burton, a music teacher at Sumner High School, and Kosberg, a carpenter, had no idea their impromptu performance would become a viral internet sensation.
But a video of the duo posted to social media became a sensation with more than 150,000 likes – and has Tower Grove residents taking to sidewalks to hear them play. The audiences bring joy to the musicians’ hearts.
“When [Dominique] and I went out, it was just such a lovely response, you know, we get to the end of the street and you just hear the whole street clapping, and it just feels great,” Kosberg said.
When the group goes outside now, they’re joined by four friends who play saxophone, drums and trumpet. Kosberg told St. Louis on the Air, “We found a way that we could be with our musician family and be safe about it.
“The neighborhoods are fairly empty so we can be in the middle of the road and away from the people – and each other.”
Inspired by the stay-at-home order to form a band, the six-member ensemble played together as the Red and Black Brass Band for the first time earlier this month.
“All of us are really, really good friends,” said Ravie Junior, a drummer for the band. “It gives us an opportunity to walk about the streets of St. Louis and really dig into the thing that we love and watch other people fall in love with it as well.”
When the band performs on the streets, they often play the Ben E. King song “Stand By Me.”
“It’s good for the people to sing,” Burton said. “The message behind it is pretty nice – not literally stand by me, but stand by me in these times of hardships.”
Because of social distancing, the group doesn’t practice as a collective.
“Ben and I can practice because we stay together, but the other guys are so well rounded in this universe of music,” Burton said. “We can just relay the message to each other, tell them what key it is and tell them what particular parts we are looking for and they can put out the best interpretation. It’s about the chemistry. That’s the magical part of working with these guys is that we all have great chemistry.”
Burton said they’ll keep hitting the streets to keep the music going. They want everyone to know that St. Louisans are getting through the crisis together.
“The reason why we wanted to keep with it and the reason why it meant so much to us was because we wanted to connect with the people in our neighborhood – the people we are used to seeing walking around,” said Kosberg.
“We were all sort of having the same kind of feeling, so it was important for us to get out there and show people that we are not completely alone.”
The Red and Black Brass Band can be reached by way of their social media channels: https://www.facebook.com/redandblackbrassband/ or https://twitter.com/redandblackbb?lang=en.
Republished with permission of St. Louis Public Radio: https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/horns-joy-st-louis-band-takes-music-streets-soothe-isolated-neighbors
