offBeat Magazine ~ by David Kunian
The idea for the Midnite Disturbers came at drummer Stanton Moore’s kitchen table. He and fellow drummer Kevin O’Day had been tossing around the idea of forming an all-star brass band, and they had called Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews to see what he thought. When he agreed, they started calling friends and ended up with a lineup including saxophonists Ben Ellman and Skerik, trombonists Big Sam Williams and Mark Mullins, trumpeters Troy Andrews, Jamelle Williams and Shamarr Allen, and sousaphonists Matt Perrine and Kirk Joseph. The band has a hard, funky, in-your face sound with an enthusiastic, throwdown party attitude. Moore explains that this comes from the fact that “everybody is a leader. Anybody can take over at any point and say, ‘I got it.’ There’re a lot of big personalities, but we’re all capable so nobody is really sweating.”

The Midnight Disturbers are also known for their distinct uniforms: black T-shirts with red letters that say “Listen to…” and then the name of a New Orleans musician. “We came up with that after seeing shirts that say ‘Listen to Bob Marley’ or ‘Listen to Lynyrd Skynyrd,’” Moore says. “We thought it would be cool if everybody had a shirt that says to listen to a particular New Orleans hero on the instrument that they are playing. We called around and asked everybody who they wanted. Tuba Fats had just died, so Matt Perrine said, ‘Tuba Fats.’ For me, I love James Black and felt that James Black could use some shouting out. Some guys have some more obscure ones, and some have some more well known ones. I think either Shorty or Shamarr has ‘Listen to Louis Armstrong.’ It’s traditional for a brass band to have a uniform, but we wanted to do something different.”

The name of the band also comes from a musician who embodied the tradition. “Grand Marshall Henry Griffn had been spouting the name ‘Midnite Disturbers’ for a while as a great name for a brass band,” Moore says. “He got it from a story by Danny Barker. They were some musicians who would go out at night and knock on people’s doors. They’d open the door, and the musicians would be playing, and they’d ask for money. They called them the Midnite Disturbers. That’s coming from Danny Barker, and you can’t get more traditional than that.”