Lucky Chops is big, brassy, and unapologetically bold. The six piece band has united audiences in more than 30 countries and counting with their infectious energy, hard driving grooves and potent singable melodies. The irresistible groove that is Lucky Chops is led by co-founder Josh Holcomb’s soulful trombone, Daro Behroozi’s soaring sax and Joshua Gawel’s powerful trumpet. Born in the streets of New York City’s multicultural melting pot the band pays homage to America’s New Orleans brass band tradition while fusing their sound with eclectic rock, Caribbean, Arabic, Eastern European, funk, jazz, ska, gospel, and EDM.
“Our strength is having individual members who get to express themselves as part of a whole that is more than the sum of its parts,” says Behroozi, a Brooklyn native whose polyglot Iranian/Dutch/French/German background has led to his interest in everything from Middle Eastern sounds to the tradition of the Balkan brass bands.
After honing their performance skills in the NYC subway system as part of the Music Under New York program, Lucky Chops’ new self-titled effort represents their first full-length album of all original material, produced by Grammy winning mixer/engineer Nic Hard [Snarky Puppy] at Williamsburg, Brooklyn’s Mission Sound.
“We spent more than a year working on the songs with our producer in the studio” recalls Holcomb, who co-founded the group in 2006 at the famed Fiorello LaGuardia High School of Music & Art with original Sousaphone player Raphael Buyo and Behroozi . “We really pushed our creative boundaries on this album. Coming from organic jazz backgrounds, we weren’t really used to doing so much post-production work. We’re excited to continue to explore this budding frontier for instrumental horn based music.”
With individual and group contributions from Holcomb, Behroozi, Gawel and Buyo their new studio album, Lucky Chops (Self-titled), is a musical travelogue that spans the veritable globe of their range. From the world-dance pop energy of the albums lead single “Full Heart Fancy” (featuring the groovy addition of guest percussionist Nate Werth of Snarky Puppy and Ghost-Note), the driving New York beat in “Halfway to the Hudson” to the Daft Punk-esque sounds of “Memories”, the lilting New Orleans funk of “The Dancing Babies,” the classic sounds of Chicago in “Familiar Places,” and the sheer exhilaration of “Pizza Day,” with its guitar solo from Vulpeck’s Cory Wong.
“Our goal is to share the joy that music brings us with others,” says Daro. “We put all of ourselves into this music. We’ve given everything we have no matter the situation.”
Starting in the underground halls of New York City’s subway stations, Lucky Chops first learned to entertain by busking for crowds from all over the world. Their talent did not go unnoticed, as a video of their mash-up of Lipps, Inc.’s “Funkytown” and James Brown’s “I Feel Good,” which
has amassed hundreds of millions of views across social media and led to an online subscriber base almost two million strong. “You really learn how to engage a crowd,” says Daro. “You have to figure out what connects with listeners to grab their attention in the middle of their busy day.” “Busking hones your performance ability and skills,” adds Holcomb. “The most valuable takeaway from playing in the subway was seeing how our music can bring together people from vastly different backgrounds, age groups and demographics, all gathered around our music as one united audience. We’re all there in one place smiling and enjoying the music as a single entity. Given the divisive climate we live in, doing our part to unite others gives us hope for a better future.”
Indeed, Lucky Chops have always considered their musical career as a mission to turn people on to the potential of traditional horn instruments like the trombone, trumpet, sax and sousaphone. The band is committed to promoting music education in public schools and regularly holds clinics in classrooms around the world, hoping to inspire the next generation of creative artists.
“We want to give young kids who play these instruments something relevant to relate to outside of 100-year-old jazz recordings,” says trumpeter Gawel, a Pennsylvania native who joined the band in October 2014, bringing with him a love of ‘70s songwriters like Elton John and Billy Joel, an admiration for Maynard Ferguson and a love for the way Sia arranges her melodies. “This is something that might be even attainable for them. Hopefully, they’ll continue to listen as they get older, as we grow our fan base.”
Lucky Chops embarked on a massive world tour through the end of 2019 that took them to 20 different countries, with a U.S. tour slated to run through the winter into the spring of 2020. At the same time, the group is establishing a non-profit organization to raise funds for music education and establish a brass compound for young musicians in their native New York City, complete with performance space, classrooms and a recording studio.
“We want to inspire young people to make music in a way that empowers them,” says Daro. “And allows them to develop their fullest potential. Playing music shares something deep in ourselves with others. So much depends on how this next generation picks up the pieces of what we’ve left behind.”
“For us, music has no limitations, no boundaries, no genres,” says Holcomb. “We view it all as a global musical palette, where we can blend different colors to create harmonious and beautiful musical soundscapes.”
Lucky Chops comes at you with every hue on the rainbow.