Brass bands have featured in World Beat many times over the years, most recently The Klezmer Brass Allstars created by Frank London (of The Klezmatics band).
Brass bands were an important conduit for the introduction of Western music to Asia. Here in Thailand, it was used not only for military marching and drills but also to advertise and accompany silent films in the early 20th century. It was in brass bands that Thai musicians learned to play Western tunes.
New Orleans' brass bands, as we all know, are one of the key elements in the development of jazz music, and my favourite of all the current brass bands in the "Big Easy", would have to be The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, which I saw perform in Bangkok many years ago.
