March 4th Marching Band, The Original Dukes of Hominy

MarchFourth Marching Band got its name by accident when a bunch of artists and musicians in NE Portland decided to put a marching band together for a Fat Tuesday party (March 4th, 2003), originally performing a 7-song set of tunes that included covers of Rebirth Brass Band, Fela Kuti, and Fleetwood Mac. The band’s gigs in the following weeks— a peace rally and opening slots with the Youngblood Brass Band and Pink Martini — cemented the group as a unit. Since then, M4 has performed over 300 shows for just about every type of audience imaginable. Without guitars or keyboards, M4 “rocks” with the best of them, swirling the audience with an over-the-top explosion of performance and charisma.

MarchFourth Marching Band has evolved into a mobile big band spectacular, consisting of a 12-piece horn section (4 saxophones, 4 trombones, & 4 trumpets), a 10-piece drum/percussion corps, anchored by electric bass (battery powered). The sound is huge, melodic, and dynamic, taking audiences on a musical journey around the globe. MarchFourth writes and performs its own material, and also draws inspiration from an eclectic range of worldwide influences, such as Eastern European Gypsy Brass, Samba, Funk, Afro-Beat, Big-Band, Jazz, and Rock music, as well as television, film, circus, and Vaudeville.

User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.