Free concert brings jazz and holiday cheer

Jazz and holiday cheer will fill McAlister Auditorium at Tulane University on Tuesday (Dec. 2) as Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews takes the stage with musicians for a concert that is asking for toys instead of admission.

Tunes for Toys will feature Andrews playing with the Soul Rebels and student musicians with the Trombone Shorty Academy. The free concert, hosted by Tulane and the Trombone Shorty Foundation, starts at 8 p.m. and is open to the community. Each concertgoer is asked to bring a new, unwrapped toy.

The toys will be distributed later to children in New Orleans" Treme neighborhood.

Andrews “was born and raised there,” said Bill Taylor, executive director of the Trombone Shorty Academy. “He really feels that the community, specifically Treme, was unbelievably influential in his development.”

This is the first Tunes for Toys concert. Taylor said that it not only helps collect toys for children and starts off the holiday season, it gives the high school students from the Trombone Shorty Academy a chance to perform with the group"s namesake and teaches the students the business end of putting on a concert.

The Trombone Shorty Academy is a program in partnership with the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at Tulane which provides music education experience for musically gifted New Orleans high school students.