The Eureka Brass Band was a brass band

Brass band

A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...

 from New Orleans, active from 1920 to 1975.

The group was founded by trumpeter Willie Wilson, and its early members included clarinetists Willie Parker, John Casimir

John Casimir (clarinetist)

John Casimir was a New Orleans jazz clarinetist and bandleader, best remembered as the leader of The Young Tuxedo Brass Band for some 20 years up to his death....

, and George Lewis

George Lewis (clarinetist)

George Lewis was an American jazz clarinetist who achieved his greatest fame and influence in the later decades of his life.-Ancestry:...

. In the 1930s Wilson became ill, and trumpeter Alcide Landry had nominal control over the band, but after 1937, when Wilson's condition forced him to leave, trombonist Joseph "Red" Clark became the group's leader briefly, followed by Dominique "T-Boy" Remy (1937-46) and then Percy Humphrey

Percy Humphrey

Percy Gaston Humphrey was a jazz trumpet player and bandleader in New Orleans, Louisiana.In addition to his own jazz band, Percy Humphrey and His Crescent City Joymakers, for more than thirty years he was leader of the Eureka Brass Band. He also played in the band of the pianist Sweet Emma Barrett...

, who led the group for the remainder of its existence.

The group's membership varied at any given time, usually holding between nine and eleven members. The typical instrumentation was three trumpets, two trombones, two reeds, tuba, snare drum, and bass drum. They recorded prolifically, for Pax, Alamac, Folkways

Folkways Records

Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987, and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.-History:...

, Jazzology, and Sounds of New Orleans. A 1951 album New Orleans Parade features the players Humphrey, trombonists Charles "Sunny" Henry and Albert Warner, and saxophonist Emanuel Paul

Emanuel Paul

Emanuel Paul was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Paul was one of the very first tenor saxophonists to hold regular work in New Orleans jazz, where his instrument often substituted for the baritone horn in a brass band...

. Their 1962 sessions Jazz at Preservation Hall, Vol. 1: the Eureka Brass Band of New Orleans, issued on Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...

, features Humphrey and his brother, clarinetist Willie Humphrey, trumpeters Kid Sheik Cola and Pete Bocage, trombonists Albert Warner and Oscar "Chicken" Henry, Emanuel Paul on tenor sax, Wilbert "Bird" Tillman on sousaphone

Sousaphone

The sousaphone is a type of tuba that is widely employed in marching bands. Designed so that it fits around the body of the musician and is supported by the left shoulder, the sousaphone may be readily played while being carried...

, snare drummer Josiah "Cie" Frazier

Cie Frazier

Josiah "Cie" Frazier was an American jazz drummer.Frazier studied drums under several New Orleans jazz musicians, including Louis Cottrell, Sr., Red Happy Bolton, and Face-O Woods. He joined the Golden Rule Band with cousin Lawrence Marrero in 1921, and played in Marrero's Young Tuxedo Orchestra...

, and bass drummer Robert "Son Fewclothes" Lewis.

After 1975 the group disbanded, but Humphrey occasionally revived the name for festival performances and other appearances.