No BS! Brass takes the New Orleans brass band into uncharted territory, fearlessly combining elements of James Brown, John Coltrane, Michael Jackson, and Led Zeppelin into their fiercely original sound. Trained in the conservatory and hardened in the garage, No BS! Brass has performed at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, the Festival of New Trumpet Music, and on National Public Radio’s Tiny Desk Concert. Equally at home in the club or on the parade route, in the concert hall or on a festival stage, No BS! Brass creates new believers wherever it goes.

No BS! Brass Band is a powerful brass band that embraces the spirit of New Orleans into its original East Coast modern funk. Their danceable arrangements are outstandingly well thought-out and organized, drawing inspiration from funk, jazz, klezmer, calypso, and Led Zeppelin. Nearly every member has had conservatory training, holding various degrees in music. Based in Richmond, Virginia, this band has quickly earned a reputation as a premiere band to see for heart-pounding energy and uncontrollable dancing.

Getting their start in early 2006, founders Reggie Pace and Lance Koehler knew that they had something special. In casting the members of the group, each member needed to have high skills and a definable unique persona. The result is a 11-piece band made up of Richmond’s heaviest sounds.  The members of the band and knew that the sound and music of No BS Brass! had to live up to the name.  In putting together the compositions and arrangements, the “b.s.” has been stripped to give the audience something solid, unique, organic, real, and powerful.

The resulting music is a true definition of the “Richmond sound.”  This instrumental funk music has strong influences of jazz and rock, like Led Zeppelin played by a brass band.  Being a 11-piece brass band, they have the look of New Orleans with the raw sound all their own. The music is extremely dance-able and high-energy.  Since their incarnation, No BS! Brass has earned a reputation as one of Richmond’s most loved bands.  Peter McElhinney of Style Weekly writes that “the best advice for their CD is to play it loud!”

“I like the No BS! Brass Band either way: kicking it with funk or clearing room for a screeching free-jazz solo. The point isn’t to redefine what a brass band can do, but that’s what No BS! achieves. From Virginia comes a storm of a brass ensemble that has decided it can do what it wants as long as it does it very, very well.”

— Jim Fusilli, NPR - All Things Considered

No BS! Brass Band