brass liberation orchestraSheet Music
We have posted sheet music for the arrangements of the songs we play as PDF files. We have also included scores below as .ly files for editing with LilyPond or .MUS files for editing with Finale, so you can make your own arrangements. Please feel free to download and use these arrangements, or to email us with suggestions, corrections, and additional music.
We also have an archive of music for songs we don't play anymore, and here's the tunes we're currently trying out
AP Touro
Written by Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, this track appears on Rebirth Brass Band's 2011 release Rebirth of New Oreans. Presumably named for A. P. Tureaud, the famed NAACP attorney who filed the lawsuit that successfully ended the system of Jim Crow segregation in New Orleans.
Sheet Music
Carinito
This song was arranged by our sister band, the Rude Mechanical Orchestra. Cariñito is a chicha (peruvian cumbia). It's a love song, and was first made popular by the band Los Hijos del Sol in Peru a few decades ago. Today, it is well known in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador, and all sorts of acts – from cumbia bands to rock bands to folk singers – play their own renditions. People from those countries never fail to recognize it when we play it on the streets.
Sheet Music
Ciganko Moja
Literally "My Little Romani Girl", this is the title of many songs from Eastern Europe from the Romani culture. The song we play is a traditional melody taught to us by Rumen “Sali” Shopov and local Balkan musician, Peter Jaques.
Sheet Music
Dog Eat Dog
Instrumental by Nigerian superstar Fela Kuti, B-side from the 1977 single No Agreement. One of the B.L.O.'s most important political-musical inspirations, Fela was a vocal opponent of Nigerian military rule, where he was jailed, physically attacked, and put under house arrest at various periods of his life for his uncompromising dissent. His mother, feminist Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, was murdered by government soldiers when they stormed Fela's compound, which he had declared the independent Kalakuta Republic. Fela died of complications from AIDS in 1997, and the profits from a 2003 Fela tribute album RED HOT + RIOT support efforts to fight AIDS and HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa.
Sheet Music
Matador
Argentine band Los Fabulosos Cadillacs' biggest hit, from their 1993 album Vasos Vacíos, about the oppression and forced disappearances during the years of military dictatorship across Latin America, particularly the National Reorganization Process in Argentina. The song narrates the story of a revolutionary hunted down by law enforcement. (See wikipedia entry.)
Sheet Music
Miserlou
Greek Rebetiko folk song dating back to at least 1927, claimed by many composers and cultures, with many Arabic, Jewish (Klezmer) and Turkish versions, but best known today through Dick Dale's 1962 American surf rock interpretation. (From wikipedia entry.)
Sheet Music
Moliendo Café
1961 hit song by Hugo Blanco of Venezuela about a coffee picker in love with the plantation owner’s daughter. (Also see wikipedia entry.)
Sheet Music
Naborusa
Song of unclear origin (and many titles and varied spellings) from the Romani culture. The version we play was taught to us by Rumen “Sali” Shopov and local Balkan musician, Peter Jaques.
Sheet Music
Solo Scales
These are scales you can use for solos for all of the songs we currently play.
Sheet Music
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)
1983 pop hit and ablum by The Euythmics. We play a version by the Soul Rebels Brass Band from their 2012 debut record, Unlock Your Mind.
Sheet Music
Wein A Ramallah 2024
Traditional Palestinian song. The title translates as We are going to Ramallah. We play this song in solidarity with the people of Palestine who are struggling for their freedom and self determination. Our arrangement in based on a version by the Italian brass band, Ottoni a Scoppio. "It's largely a nostalgic tune cherished by the Palestinian diaspora and sung at festivals to reflect the longing for Palestine." (Daoud Kuttab, director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al Quds University in Ramallah)
Sheet Music
