The Free Agents Brass Band was formed in September 2005 by bass drummer Ellis Joseph — “EJo” — in the weeks after Hurricane Katrina displaced the entire city of New Orleans and its culture. Determined to return home with as many New Orleanian musicians as he could gather, Joseph pulled together players who had relocated to Atlanta: trombonist Alfred Growe, tuba player Arian “Big Boy” Macklin Sr., Ersel “Garfield” Bogan, trumpeters Shannon Haynes, Chad Brown, and Julian Gosin, and snare drummer Renard “Teedy Man” Henry, brother of trombone great Corey Henry.
Biography
The Band Katrina Couldn't Stop
From that start the Free Agents launched a crusade to preserve and promote the brass band tradition. The band's members have performed with Rebirth, New Birth, Hot 8, the Stooges, the Soul Rebels, the High Steppers, and the Pin Stripe and Showtime brass bands — a deep bench of New Orleans veterans producing what the band calls a combination of old traditions with new funk. Their motto, “We Made It Through That Water,” and their nickname, “The People's Brass Band,” say the rest.
These musicians are about more than performing — they care about the authenticity of New Orleans brass band music and the importance of Social Aid & Pleasure to the culture of the Big Easy.
— Do604The band's story is pressed into its signature recording, Made It Through That Water — re-released in a 20th-anniversary edition on August 22, 2025, with new liner notes by music scholar Kyle DeCoste and expanded liner notes on a custom View-Master reel of intimate photos from post-Katrina New Orleans.
