The Hungry March Band – Critical Brass

Roaring out of Brooklyn NYC, the Hungry March Band is the greatest brass march band of all time. The HMB is based in New York City. We are a community group with a membership as diverse as our music. Put on your dancing shoes and break out the fancy threads because we’ve got the party going on — a blazing parade of flesh, blood, steel, brass and wood. We are the music of the people!

Our musical repertoire consists of original compositions written by band members as well as scores selected from our multi-cultural world community. These songs range from New Orleans street bands, European brass traditions, Gypsy/Roma classics, wedding brass bands from India, the jazz world and the global community of NYC. The band is an ever evolving musical experiment influenced and inspired from Brooklyn’s backyard with Latin flavor, punk rock noise, hip hop beats and music of the streets.

Our discography includes three self-produced CD’s. The most recent, “Critical Brass” was recorded at Loho Studios, NYC, in the Spring of 2004 merely days after returning from a very successful European tour. Our second release “On the Waterfront” (2003) was recorded in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and dedicated to the hallowed grounds upon which the tunes were wrought. The virgin debut, Hungry March Band Official Bootleg, (2001) consists of a series of live recordings and is considered an historical reference for exercises in wind, percussion and fluid dynamics.

We have been featured in articles in the New York Times, The Village Voice, London Times, New York Post, Time Out New York, New York Press, Tokyo Times, various European publications and have countless mentions in blogs, various zines and web articles. We have appeared on several TV networks including Lifetime, CNN, and New York One, march bys on the fly with ABC, NBC, CBS as well as appearances in several documentaries including an HMB feature Rockumentary, A Cat in a Bag.

We have performed in a huge variety of fine venues and celebrated events. The band is infamous for playing shows that are somewhere between legendary and magical. Such planned and spontaneous performances have included guerilla art events, the Staten Island Ferry, NYC subways, Brighton Beach Boardwalks and steps of the NYC Post Office. Please see our separate HMB performance list.

We are available to play festivals, parties, parades, community celebrations, conventions, birthdays, weddings, bar mitzvahs…and remain open to suggestion!

HMB Pleasure Society and Second Line is an evolving extension of the band that adds so much spice to our parades and events, that includes a dedicated group, its participation in parade presentations features up to 75 performers who reflect the music with their vibrant dancing, baton twirling, fire spinning, hoola-hooping, gymnastics, stilt walking, and puppeteering.

1 Jupanese Ju Ju
2 Choli Ke Peechhe
3 Bubamara
4 Don Cosmic
5 Topsy
6 Bumper to Bumper
7 Slow Retardé
8 Disko Dzumbus
9 Blue Pepper
10 Vjerin Cocek
11 Paranoid
12 Montserrat Serrat
13 Papa’s Got a Brand New Pigbag
14 Watusi
15 Haitian Fight Song