Bio
Adam Arredondo is a trumpet player and bandleader focused on the intersection of music and dance within American vernacular music. Currently based in New Orleans, Arredondo was raised in Mississippi where he was trained in classical trumpet. He began his musical training with his father, a hobbyist trumpeter, before taking lessons with Wayne Linehan of the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra. He continued his classical education under Dr. Michael Huff at Mississippi State.
Since moving to New Orleans in 2010, Arredondo has focused on early jazz and swing. As a working musician in such a rich musical city, he has been fortunate to record over a dozen albums and perform at several notable festivals, including French Quarter Fest, Satchmo Summerfest, The New Orleans Swing Dance Festival, Bayou Boogaloo, and Swingtime Ball (Beijing, China).
As a co-founder of Tap That Brass, Arredondo works on the intersection of tap and music in performance, composition, and education. He has had the opportunity to work with like-minded institutions including the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts and Crescent City Tap Fest, working alongside such dancers Bril Barret, Starinah Dixon, Sam Emmond, and TTB co-founder, Nora Clark.
Arredondo’s most recent undertaking is The Jump Hounds, formed in 2019. The sextet seeks to promote jump, the chapter of music that bridged the gap between swing and rock and roll. His latest solo project is a study of Louis Armstrong’s rival, jazz age trumpeter Jabbo Smith. Arredondo has carefully transcribed Jabbo’s seminal 1929 recordings, which constitute a superb example of jazz age virtuosity and musicality ahead of it’s time. He plans to publish a book of these transcriptions with analysis by the end of 2023.
Bands/Projects
In addition to freelance classical and commercial gigs, I am a member of the following groups.
The Jump Hounds
The Jump Hounds is a New Orleans-based sextet that specializes in ‘jump’, the jazz-based rhythm and blues that bridged the gap between swing and rock & roll. To keep this often-overlooked style of music alive, the band plays a mix of Jump Era classics and original compositions within the idiom. The result is a repertoire that balances energetic uptempo numbers, slow blues, and cozy mid-tempo swingers. This breadth of material makes for dynamic live shows that are tailored to the audience.
Tap That Brass
Tap That Brass was formed to embrace and explore tap/live music collaboration. TTB seeks to continue to expand the full potential of percussive dance by blending the musical role of the tap dancer with other musicians. Improvisation and composition are both used to incorporate tap dance percussionists into the band while maintaining sophisticated technique and visually interesting choreography.
Sunny Side
Sunny Side is a jazz band based out of New Orleans, Louisiana. They are heavily influenced by the music of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole, Fats Waller, and many other early jazz legends. The band name ‘Sunny Side’ was influenced by the 1930 Fats Waller/Jimmy McHugh jazz standard ‘On the Sunny Side of the Street’. The band was created in 2019, and is composed of musicians that have played together in various jazz projects around New Orleans since 2017.
