Nominated by Offbeat Magazine’s “Best Of The Beat” Awards:
Best Traditional Jazz Band 2023
and
Best Traditional Jazz Album Of 2023
The Secret Six are a New Orleans traditional jazz band evoking the rich style of collective improvisation and ensemble playing. Specializing in stomps, blueses, rags and no frills hot jazz.
March 15th, 2020 saw me playing one of my weekly gigs on Frenchman Street in New Orleans when the police came in and showed us their digital badges on their phones and told us to stop playing. We indicated that we would stop after the song we were playing and they indicated that we were to stop immediately. That was the beginning of the pandemic lockdown. After a few months of live streaming shows over the internet and applying for grants and unemployment I decided that I wanted to continue playing live music. I started playing safe socially distanced shows with other like minded musicians. I returned to the streets and started playing in parks and playgrounds for the local people of New Orleans. We played flea markets, church picnics, kids birthday parties, levee lunches, porch parties and backyard gatherings. We went all over the city playing music for people outdoors and often we played to just a few socially distanced people who were out getting some fresh air. No matter what it took or what the money was like we just kept playing. We met people with tears in their eyes because they had not heard live music in months. We met people who asked us to play for their lonely quarantining family members outside the windows of their retirement homes. At times we played as a duo or a trio or a quartet or whatever we could muster. Part of the inspiration for the name comes from famed abolitionist John Brown and his “Secret Society of Six” from 1859. It seemed to fit during a summer filled with civil rights protests and of course, the core group of six musicians.. When we wanted to record the band we called our friend Earl Scioneaux and asked him to record us outdoors because we were all apprehensive about being indoors. As the pandemic begins to subside we are developing into a classic New Orleans traditional jazz band evoking the rich style of collective improvisation and ensemble playing and specializing in stomps, blueses, rags and no frills hot jazz. We are delving into the deep cuts of King Oliver’s Creole Orchestra, Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five, 1920’s dance tunes, songs of the New Orleans revival era and much more. We hope you take the time to check out our new recording. If you would like to support the band you can purchase a digital download here on our website or a CD at one of our live shows. We are having a great time developing our repertoire and will be making more recordings soon. The Secret Six is one of the silver linings we found in the pandemic, thank you for helping us keep live music alive!
the new album
Available Now!
If You Like Secret Six Check Out
Smoking Time Jazz Club
