The Americus Brass Band is one of America’s best-known professional brass ensembles, specializing in the performance of 19th and early 20th Century band music on authentic period instruments. Founded 50 years ago in Long Beach, California, the group has toured nationally performing hundreds of shows in over 35 states and made four critically acclaimed recordings. Their Buffalo Bill Wild West Show Cowboy Band CD was named a “Best of the Year” and “a must buy” by Randy Salas in Fanfare Magazine.

The Americus Brass Band (ABB) has also performed at many national events including the 125th anniversary reenactments of the Civil War battles of Bull Run and Gettysburg, the International Brassfest II, The 2016 International Trumpet Guild conference, the Great American Brass Band Festival, and the National Civil War Band Festival.

They were also invited  to perform at the Hollywood Bowl, the first band to perform in that iconic venue for over 60 years. John Henken of the Los Angeles Times described the performance as “blazing” and “taut” and wrote, “Its 13 members…handled their assignments with virtuoso flair…”

The ABB is probably best known for its work in Hollywood where they have recorded sound-track music for and/or appeared on-screen in a dozen major motion pictures and television shows including Glory, Gettysburg, Geronimo: An American Legend, andHidalgo.

More recently, they have added four woodwinds and created a new touring show called “Top Brass.”  This show has expanded their repertoire to include music from four historic military bands: Patrick Gilmore’s 24th Massachusetts Infantry Band from the Civil War, John Phillip Sousa’s United States Marine Band, James Reese Europe’s 369th “Harlem Hell Fighters” Infantry Band” from WWI, and Glenn Miller’s famous Army Air Force Band of WWII. 

Finally, in 2019, on the 100th anniversary of the revolutionary Pathe recordings by James Reese Europe’s “Harlem Hell Fighters’ Band,” the ABB recorded the very first modern re-creations of many of the most iconic performances of this earliest of jazz “big bands.”  These shows and recordings demonstrate once again why the Americus Brass Band has been, and always will be,  America’s Brass Band!