brass liberation orchestra

Sheet 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

A.P. 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.

Ana Dammi Falastini

Bella Ciao

A partisan song of the CNL, the Italian resistance to Mussolini during WWII. Its lyrics were written as a farewell to the female loved ones left behind when partisans went to the Italian hills to fight the guerilla war against fascism.

Cariñito

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.

Do What You Wanna

Freedom

Ghost Town

If You Want Me To Stay

J.J.D.

Another song by Fela Kuti (see above), released as a 22-minute single in 1977.

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.)

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.)

Monserrat Serrat

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.

Ooh Na Nae

Traditional melody based on one of many chants used by the Mardi Gras Indians in the New Orleans Second Line Tradition.

Roma Rama

An original modal piece (Concert G/Ab) written by former BLO member Axel Herrera. It was inspired by the music of the Roma people of Eastern Europe and is a tribute to their struggles and culture.

Solo Scales For Improvising

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.

We Got That Fire

Traditional New Orleans Second Line song.

You Move Ya Lose

New Orleans Second Line song by Rebirth Brass Band, from their 1994 album Rollin.