Why Trombone Shorty is important (and very good)....

From Cahl's Juke Joint  (this guy is a mid-western college professor who writes a very good music blog that I've followed for several years):

(A post while attending the Austin City Limits Festival)  ....In the middle of an electric rendition of "When the Saints Go Marching In" on Sunday, Trombone Shorty added bits of Solomon Burke's "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love." Most of the folks in the audience probably didn't understand the significance — the soul legend had died earlier in the day. To me, the medley, which also included a portion of The Neville Brothers' "Fire on the Bayou," epitomized why Trombone Shorty is one of the most important performers of his generation.

He's a musicologist with a deep respect for the masters who've come before him. He patterns his act on James Brown's, from the blaring horn section to the nifty dance moves and impassioned vocals, but Louis Armstrong certainly lives in the same neighborhood of Trombone Shorty's mind — who would have thought a slow, dreamy version of "Sunny Side of the Street" could work a crowd of twentysomethings into a frenzy? Trombone Shorty did it by hitting a high note on his trumpet and sustaining the note for several minutes.

He combined New Orleans jazz with Miles Davis' electric period and some pop hip-hop — even my stodgy middle-aged friends seemed to enjoy Trombone Shorty's rendition of The Black-Eyed Peas' "Let's Get It Started." And when Trombone Shorty played his trombone, it sounded like a funky wake for Brother Solomon Burke and every other old master Trombone Shorty has ever idolized.