Tuba Skinny

Tuba Skinny
In performance in New Orleans, 2009
Background information
Origin	New Orleans, United States
Genres	Swing, blues, ragtime, jazz
Years active	2009 (2009) – present
Website	www.tubaskinny.tk
Members	Erika Lewis Todd Burdick Jason Lawrence Gregory Sherman Shaye Cohn Barnabus Jones Robin Rapuzzi Craig Flory

Tuba Skinny is a New Orleans traditional jazz band which formed in 2009. Their home is New Orleans, Louisiana. Tuba Skinny's ensemble includes tuba, trombone, cornet, tenor banjo, guitar, vocals, washboard, and clarinet, and is inspired by the early jazz and blues music of the 1920s and 1930s. The band has performed on streets and stages around the world, including music festivals in Mexico, Sweden, Australia, Italy, France, Switzerland and Spain.

Offbeat Magazine awarded their album Owl Call Blues recognition as the best traditional jazz album of the year in 2014. This award is given only to Louisiana musicians, and was first established in 1994.

The band's name is a tribute to the tuba player Anthony Lacen who was better known as Tuba Fats. He was a founding member of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, one of New Orleans' most prominent brass rhythm bands. He died in 2004.

Tuba Skinny also appears on:

Although the band's members have changed slightly from their début in 2009, their ensemble in 2015 included the following musicians.

Their material, while it includes some original material they have composed, is drawn from the lesser known compositions of the early jazz era. Their repertoire has been documented by their honorary archivist to include over 300 songs. He has praised their selection of deserving tunes, and selected the following as being especially noteworthy: New Orleans Bump, You Can Have My Husband, Jackson Stomp, Deep Henderson, Banjoreno, Treasures Untold, Russian Rag, Oriental Strut, Minor Drag, Michigander Blues, In Harlem's Araby, Me and My Chauffeur, A Jazz Battle, Droppin' Shucks, Fourth Street Mess Around, and Carpet Alley Breakdown.

The singers and composers whose material they favor include Jelly Roll Morton, Lucille Bogan, Victoria Spivey, Memphis Minnie, Jabbo Smith, Georgia White, Skip James, Merline Johnson, Ma Rainey, Hattie Hart, Blind Blake and Clara Smith. The bands whose material Tuba Skinny has interpreted in their own manner are The Memphis Jug Band, The Dixieland Jug Blowers and The Mississippi Mud Steppers.