Student Gets Custom Trombone, Peers Get Music Knowledge

Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews is no stranger to the New Orleans music scene. At four years old learning at the knee of his R&B artist grandfather Jessie Hill he and his older brother James a jazz trumpeter grew up inside music. Wanting to give back and give kids the proper foundation so they can learn the fundamentals Troy created a foundation. As Andrews prepared to host the fourth annual Shorty Fest a student at a local high school received a custom trombone from Andrew's.

Bill Taylor, the foundation's executive director who was also Andrew's tutor in the middle school states" it's just not being passed on as organically as it once was"" our mission is to make sure that the next generation of musicians learns of traditional language of "New Orleans music" is not just jazz or blues or funk or street rhythms, there's a lot of information in that music".
The foundation also sponsors the Fredman Music Business Institute at Tulane University. The free programs are held from September through June. Students in the business Academy joined Tulane business students and helping with production and marketing of Shorty Fest. Andrews when he can helps them read music, learn music theory and some recording engineering, covering all the bases. "They call me sometimes with questions and I can hear their excitement" Andrew states." This has nothing to do with regular schools, there are no grades so they are coming to learn. They usually know how to play and their talented but they might not be the best at the business side as that was a component I had to learn along the way".