New Orleans Nightcrawlers

A dozen Crescent City musicians who also perform with acts such as Dr. John and Dukes of Dixieland make up the New Orleans Nightcrawlers. Side projects do not stop the players from uniting into a tight ensemble for their recorded work, yet the same commitments sharply limit opportunities for concerts, leaving live shows infrequent. Despite this constraint the ensemble has collected multiple honors, among them the 1996 Best of the Beat Award for Best Traditional Jazz Album, the 1997 Best of the Beat Award for Best Brass Band Album, the 1997 Big Easy Award for Best Contemporary Brass Band, and the 2001 Best of the Beat Award for Best Contemporary Brass Band Album. Festival stages the group has reached include New Orleans’ Jazz & Heritage Festival, Finland’s Imatra Big Band Festival in 2000, London’s Gumbo Festival, Birmingham, AL’s City Stages Festival, and Nantes, France’s Les Rendezvous de l’Erdre. The roster comprises snare drummer Kerry “Fatman” Hunter, clarinetist and saxophonist Jason Mingledorff, saxophonists Ken “Snakebite” Jacobs and Brent Rose, sousaphone player Matt “Tubop” Perrine, flügelhorn and trumpet player Barney Floyd, bass drummer Tanio Hingle, vocalist and trombonist Craig “Sparky” Klein, trumpeter Kevin Clark, vocalist and percussionist Smiley Ricks, trombonist Rick Trolsen, and co-founder Tom McDermott.