Mama Digdown's Brass Band

Tune in to jazz88 this morning at 9:40 to hear an interview with Peter Solomon and a preview of our show at the Parkway. The interview is also available on the jazz88 website.

This Friday night! Tickets running low- don’t hit snooze or they’ll be gone!

Mama Digdown's Brass Band New Orleans style brass band

Night 2 of Digdown 30 at

Bucking it like a horse - night 2 of the at the

Our 30th anniversary party continues in Minneapolis on Jan. 12th w/ our friends trio & . We love these peeps and are sure you will too! The show will sell out so grab your tix while you can.

Jeff & Roc at night 2 of our Anniversary weekend

Thank you Madison for a great sold out show at the Bur Oak last night! Our show tonight is also sold out. Stay tuned for details about our February 13th Mardi Gras show in Madison. 

Hey Minneapolis friends, advance tickets on sale now!

mamadigdown.com Home page of mamadigdown.com, a jazz group from Madison, WI. Mama Digdown's is a New Orleans style brass band. They have recorded 10 albums and have appeared at clubs, concert halls and festivals across the US and Europe.

Whitefish Bay, WI around 2009.

New hats arrived today! We’ll have them available at our Bur Oak shows next weekend.

We always loved when Uncle Lionel Batiste would come by our shows at Donna’s Bar and sit in.

We played at the Jazz Ascona festival in Ascona, Switzerland in 2005, 06 and 08. It’s an amazing festival and gave us the chance to see and play with many of our friends from NOLA and elsewhere- Leroy Jones, Gregory Stafford, Bob French, Trisha Boutee, Trombone Shorty, Mark Braud, Uncle Lionel Batiste, , Walter Payton, Herlin Riley and Jon Alred.

On a sunny afternoon on the shore of Lake Maggiore, we recorded our album, Ascona. Braud, Boutee, Earl Conway and Jon Alred all lend their considerable skills to tracks on that album.

We had the pleasure of chatting with Bianca Martin on the City Cast Madison podcast about the history of the band and our 30th anniversary shows coming up at the Bur Oak on the 15th & 16th of Dec. Hope you like it!

https://megaphone.link/CC9586892855

This is the battle of the bands we won at the in 1993. We didn’t have a regular snare drummer at the time, so guitar wiz played with us. Our prize was $100 and an opening spot w/ Ipso Facto on the Union Terrace.

Don’t hit snooze on this alarm, tickets are going fast for these shows.

The Bur Oak

Happy birthday to our trumpet man, Jeff “K-Town” Maddern- one of the baddest cats in the game. Jeff is pictured here at the Madison Blues Fest around 2001.

We played Blues Fest every year it was held and met some amazing musicians there. The lineups were always incredible - BB King, Al Green, Little Richard, Jeff Beck, Ray Charles, Neville Brothers, Dr. John, Shameka Copeland, Susan Tedeschi, Taj Mahal, Galactic, Bobby Rush…. the list goes on and on (scroll to see one of the posters)

The year Dr. John played he saw me walking backstage with the sousaphone and called out “watcha all doin”? I replied “getting ready to second line” to which he responded “yeah man, sec ‘em to death”! I’ll never forget his sly little grin as he said those words.

It was a great festival and one that allowed us to introduce ourselves to a lot of new fans.

How many of these old school Digdown brothers can you name? 1994

At Buffa’s in New Orleans In 2014 w/

Scott, Jeff, Mike & Nat in 1997. Really vibing on Mike’s jeans, hope he saved them, they’d definitely work these days.

This photo, taken on Main St. in Madison in front of what is now was inside our second album, “Big Boy, that we released in 1997.

The album was a mix of traditionals and some originals by the band. It was the first time we recorded “Voodoo Groove”, written by . The album also features the Temptations song, “My Girl” a great song by Roc called Mean Joe Green, and a version of Bourbon Street Parade with our friend, Paul Cebar, providing the vocals.

Roc & Erik in 1995 with the 49’ Chevy that we used for the cover of our first album, North of New Orleans. This is the album that opened the door for us at Donna’s Bar in New Orleans.

On our first trip to see brass bands in NOLA, we gave Donna & Charlie, the owners of Donna’s Bar, a copy of this album. When we returned months later, they had put the cd on the juke box. Charlie fell in love with our version of Mo’ Better Blues and played it all the time. They also asked us to come back down and gig at Donna's. For for a decade and a half we regularly traveled to NOLA to play there. While we were there, Donna & Charlie put us up in their Bywater home. In the beginning we’d open for , , Mahogany Brass Band, Tuba Fats & The Chosen Few and New Birth Brass Band. Eventually Charlie gave us our own nights there. Charlie made us play Mo’ Better Blues every time we gigged there. Charlie Simms passed in 2017 and at his memorial service at the Carver Theater we played it one last time for him .

Throwback w/ Moses, Kid and Erik. This was in 2001 at a back yard party at Erik & Tonya’s house.

Playing at Donna’s Bar in New Orleans in 2001/02 with sitting in on trombone.

Outside Gene’s Po’ Boy (RIP) in NOLA. 2002 or so. After nearly every night either playing or listening to music in New Orleans we used to make our way over to Gene’s to grab a half hot sausage w/cheese, half cheese burger po’ boy.

See you tonight, Madison! 8:00 show- info and tix on North Street Cabaret’s or our website.