Community Spotlight: Trombone Shorty Foundation

This summer, we awarded a series of Community Engagement Grants to 20 outstanding New Orleans leaders, creatives, activists, musicians and non-profit organizations. Stay tuned on Salon726.com as we tell their stories with the help of local writers and photographers.

Spotlight by Maisy Gellert

From the musically lush Tremé neighborhood, a New Orleans icon was born. Troy Andrews, more commonly known as Trombone Shorty, the American producer, musician, and philanthropist, is best known for his virtuosity on both the trombone and trumpet. Troy fostered his talents in New Orleans music growing up with some of the greats from Tremé inspiring and guiding him along the way. Wanting to preserve and perpetuate the vibrant music he grew up learning and performing, Troy created the Trombone Shorty Foundation along with non-profit veteran Bill Taylor. 

The Trombone Shorty Foundation educates the next generation of musically gifted youth of New Orleans through a performance curriculum curated by both Andrews and Taylor, who led the Tipitina’s Foundation for nearly a decade in the early-2000s. The Foundation’s mission of continuing and conserving New Orleans music through performance-driven musical education makes them the perfect recipients of a Preservation Hall Foundation Community Fellowship grant. 

The Trombone Shorty Foundation continues the tradition of New Orleans Jazz by selecting local youth to attend the Trombone Shorty Academy, run by the Foundation. Here, the next generation of New Orleans musicians learn what it takes to carry on the robust and vivacious musical culture that is an integral part of New Orleans.

This program has the potential to inspire and cultivate talented youth who are determined to master their craft. Some even have dreams of performing on a national stage like Troy himself. Taylor states, “the core focus of music education is that everything that we are doing, and teaching, is coherent and consistent.” 

Unfortunately, Covid-19 along with social distancing guidelines have made coherence and consistency very difficult. Bill Taylor realizes how, in times like these, it is difficult to get the same level and amounts of funding as a foundation normally would. As a result, the Foundation recently produced the virtual Shorty Fest program, featuring Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Galactic, Anders Osborne, Tank and the Bangas and more, to assist the Foundation in their fundraising efforts.

It’s essential to support the musical talent that makes New Orleans the place that it is. We are so grateful for the work the Trombone Shorty Foundation is doing. You can support their work at www.tromboneshortyfoundation.org/.