Best of Budapest & Hungary

The Hot 8 Brass Band will present their latest album in Hungary on 16th April. The 30-year-old brass band will make the audience dance to their hip-hop and funk styled music, while also evoking the most beautiful jazz sounds of their hometown, New Orleans.

    The Hot 8 Brass Band has performed and collaborated with artists such as Jon Batiste, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Basement Jaxx and Alice Russell, and has complemented live performances by Mos Def, Lauryn Hill and Mary J. Blige.

    These prestigious collaborations are no coincidence: the band has achieved huge audience and professional success. They also worked on a song from John Batiste's Grammy-winning album 2022, and in 2013 their own album The Life & Times of... was nominated for the most prestigious music award.

    Their fifth album Big Tuba, released this year, combines the usual elements of jazz, hip-hop and funk, with deep, sentimental pieces and danceable, moving compositions for everyone.

    The album is particularly significant in the band's life, as on 6 September 2021, The Hot 8 Brass Band lost their bandleader, Bennie Pete."He was not only our leader, but a constant inspirational and cohesive force among our bandmates and beyond.

    Bennie was a constant in our lives - a leader, a teacher, a mentor, and more than that, a true inspiration to our band, to many other musicians, and to the entire musical and cultural community."

    The album's title track is a tribute to him, but it will not only feature his previously released Big Tuba, but also a cover of Bill Withers' Ain't No Sunshine and the already available Fight Song.

    The band is also touring the US, Europe, the UK and Ireland this year as part of the Big Tuba Tour. Previously they have played to sold-out audiences at venues such as London's Roundhouse and Brighton Dome, and this year's shows are set to be no different, with a special evening in Budapest on board the A38 Ship on 16 April.