504 to 402: Hot 8 Brass Band Plays Music at Miller Park

The Hot 8 Brass Band will perform June 20 during Music at Miller Park in Omaha, Nebraska.

If you've never been to New Orleans, you can experience it in Omaha once we get there, baby. We come and bring it to you.”

— Alvarez Huntley, trumpet player and lead vocalist, Hot 8 Brass Band

OMAHA, NE, UNITED STATES, June 10, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Expect to sweat a little.

That is trumpet player and lead vocalist Alvarez Huntley's advice for anyone coming to see Hot 8 Brass Band at Miller Park this month. There will be live horns. Live vocals. And, if the band has its way, a whole lot of people will be out of their seats and into the music.

"If you've never been to New Orleans, you can experience it in Omaha once we get there, baby," Huntley said. "504, straight up. We come and bring it to you."

Hot 8 Brass Band will headline the first Music at Miller Park concert of the summer on Saturday, June 20. The nationally known New Orleans brass band brings nearly 30 years of music, history and unmistakable energy to the free outdoor concert series, now in its sixth year.

Music at Miller Park has become a North Omaha summer tradition, celebrating live music, community and the neighborhood's deep jazz, soul and R&B roots. When told Hot 8 would be one of the first national touring groups outside of Omaha natives to headline the series, Huntley paused.

"Wow, that's mind-blowing," he said. "I am absolutely honored that you chose us to even consider being there. Now I feel like we have to do something special for y'all on the 20th."

Hot 8's story began in 1996, when sousaphone player Bennie Pete helped merge two former Fortier High School student groups, the High Steppers and Looney Tunes Brass Bands, into what became Hot 8 Brass Band.

"We were really kids when we started doing all of this," Huntley said.

At first, Hot 8 followed the traditional brass band style they grew up hearing around New Orleans. Over time, the band began blending in some funk, R&B, hip-hop, rap, chants and bounce.

"It's so many different genres that feel good," he said. "You just mesh it all together, and you can create something totally different."

That sound has built an international following while keeping Hot 8 connected to New Orleans. The band has toured widely, and its catalog spans original compositions and reinvented covers, some of which have millions of streams on Spotify. In 2022, the band won album of the year at the Grammy Awards for Jon Batiste’s “We Are.” They were also nominated for a Grammy in 2014.

Hot 8’s success story has also been shaped by loss. Over the years, the band has lost original members to violence and illness. Hurricane Katrina scattered the band and its community. In 2021, the group lost Pete, its beloved founder known to everyone as Big Tuba, to complications of COVID-19 and sarcoidosis.

"We owe everything to him as far as our musical careers and being a part of Hot 8," Huntley said.

The band's 2025 album and single, "Big Tuba," is a tribute to Pete.

"If you don't know and follow us, then you wouldn't know that it's that deep," Huntley said. "Rest in peace, Bennie Pete, aka Big Tuba."

That emotional depth is part of what makes a Hot 8 show more than a party, even when it absolutely feels like one.

"It’s a lot of energy and emotion," Huntley said. "You might laugh, cry, dance like you've never danced before."

Joining Huntley are Tyrus “T.” Chapman on trombone and vocals, Larry “Big World” Brown on trombone and vocals, Chris Cotton on trumpet, Andrew Calhoun on tenor saxophone, Andrew Perronne on sousaphone, Greshiren Britton on snare and Darrayl McGowan on bass drum.

Huntley said their show will pull people in quickly.

"First five minutes, people are blown away," he said. "We're getting the energy going already, crowd participation early. We try to lock you immediately."

Music at Miller Park is free and open to the public. Learn more at o-pa.org/mamp.

"Omaha and surrounding areas, just come out and catch the vibes," Huntley said. "Get ready for a Hot 8 New Orleans experience. I hope there are people as far as the eye can see. Peace and love."

Tara McNamara
Omaha Performing Arts
+1 402-661-8442
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