Heating the Hall

Review: Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue and opener Abraham Alexander, at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall; Tuesday, October. 20, 2026

Any physics student knows compressing a gas raises its temperature, as Trombone Shorty did Tuesday in the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. Blazing hot in big open spaces – Jazz Fest in New Orleans, the Saratoga Jazz Festival, I’ve seen him at both – he compressed his Orleans Avenue band into an explosive 100-minute joyfully incandescent party in the cozy downtown Troy Hall.

Trombone Shorty makes his entrance, guitarist Pete Murano at left.

Noting Troy is his real name, the trombonist, trumpeter, singer, keyboardist, bandleader and entertainer dazzled the place. “Dynamic” doesn’t come close. (His last name is Andrews, an expansive New Orleans musical family, sort of parallel to Neville, Marsalis, Batiste and Boutte. But we digress.)

Up front to photograph, the joyous visual pandemonium of their first few songs felt too overwhelming to hear the precise chaos all those constantly moving players made.

Here’s the setlist, thanks to fans from north of Utica who kindly let me photograph it. But Shorty dove off script so often that the (superb!) front-of-house sound engineer said the crew doesn’t bother to give him one.

In addition to his own “We PARTYIN’!” good-time tunes, Shorty honored his New Orleans forbears with the Meters’ “Ain’t No Use,” the Neville Brothers’ “Fire and Brimstone,” the Allen Toussaint/Ernie K-Doe “Here Come the Girls.” In an extended Louis Armstrong tribute “On The Sunny Side of the Street,” Shorty played trad-jazz hesitation-beat trumpet, using rotary breathing to stretch a note out past Cropseyville. Afterward, he fell to the stage, feigning exhaustion, then sprang up for “Fire and Brimstone.”

Above, Shorty plays trumpet, his cheeks all puffed ala Dizzy Gillespie (he played The Hall, too); below, Shorty sings with Tracii Lee, guitarist Pete Murano between them.

His songs flowed well among the classics. His “Lifted” early on built big to set up “Ain’t No Use,” then his “Where It At?” maintained momentum before his “Lie to Me” showed the rumba IS New Orleans, then “Fire and Brimstone” pushed the dance-beat hard.

Setting aside trumpet, trombone and mic, Shorty played the whole band at times with arm waves, like a stage-spanning instrument.

He also played the crowd, pointing and saying “I see you!” to an older gent standing and dancing through the whole show. Spotting two young boys down front, he autographed a tambourine for each, handing them over with fist-bumps.

Saxophonist Orlando Gilbert, left, and Dan Ostereich, center, flank Trombone Shorty; guitarist John Maesta at right.

Playing together, tight as the Tedeschi Trucks Band, the band often did steps together, or jammed in tight clusters. Everybody got a solo, Shorty fanning their flames. Guitarist John Maesta used Hendrix-y feedback to explore space in “Lie to Me” while Pete Murano played down to earth guitar funk in “Ain’t No Use.” Near the end, Dan Oestreicher put down his baritone saxophone to dance around, then belly-slid across the stage between Shorty’s spread legs. Young tenor saxophonist Orlando Gilbert, Shorty’s nephew, went all bebop in “Where It At,” using his whole horn from whomps to screams. Shorty briefly played timbales in a pulsating duet with Joey Peebles, then let the drummer take over. Busy-all-night bassist D.J. Raymond played even faster when Shorty urged him to top speed. Singer Tracci Lee sang cool cameos in “Ain’t No Use,” duetted with Shorty in “Fire and Brimstone” and wrapped the main set by partying through “When the Saints Go Marching In.” She pumped fresh, happy energy into this over-played Mardi Gras classic before an all-in romp through “Everybody Needs Somebody.”

The encore brought the (vintage) funk in a fun way, medleying P-Funk and James Brown get-downs into a seamless dance dazzle of moon-walk glide and mic shenanigans. They rocked jukebox evergreens “We Want the Funk,” “Turn This Mutha Out,” “Sex Machine,” “Shake Your Money Maker” – then Shorty left promising “I’m coming back soon!” Saratoga Jazz Festival?

While Trombone Shorty got famous at four in a Jazz Fest photo with Bo Diddley, opener Abraham Alexander, now a youthful 35, jumped into the spotlight with an Oscar nomination last year for his song “Like a Bird” on the “Sing Sing” soundtrack. This followed a slow build of Texas club shows and guest spots. A confident charmer, he told of Oscar night encounters with Demi Moore, Elton John, Diane Warren and Morgan Freeman; but also of a childhood uprooted from Greece to Texas then tainted by family tragedy, adoption, then reconciliation.

Abraham Alexander, above; below, at center with Ezrie Katzen, guitar, and Jordache Grant, keyboard

Thoughtfully slow, in his mellow voice and acoustic guitar, his songs made beauty of tough times. Jordache Grant’s keyboard lent both bass bottom and piano decoration while Ezrie Katzen’s immaculate guitar felt equally tasteful. Katzen kindly wrote the setlist and players’ names in my notebook.

Yes, that’s Chris Isaac’s “Wicked Game” – Alexander didn’t try Isaac’s high notes – among originals from Alexander’s debut album “Sea/Sons.” They closed with a poignant new one from his under-construction second album.

Alexander likely won’t be an opener for long.

Gallery

Pre-show fans in packed Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, above; below, singer Tracii Lee, left, and Pete Murano greet the crowd before Trombone Shorty comes on.