Brasstracks Tickets

Brasstracks in Concert

The romance between jazz and hip-hop started simmering in the late 1980s and hit full boil in early-1990s New York with Digable Planets and the Native Tongues collective. But what might be the fullest flowering of this mellifluous partnership arrived just a few years back via the Brooklyn-based duo known as Brasstracks. 

Comprising drummer Conor Rayne and trumpeter/keyboardist/producer Ivan Jackson, Brasstracks fuses virtuosic musicianship with savvy production skills. Jackson provides strong, impeccable chops while looping and layering his horn to achieve the kind of lush sonic grandeur usually found in big-band jazz. Meanwhile, Rayne scintillates on the kit, an in-the-pocket drummer who knows how to build drama through syncopated subtlety but can also explode into a flourish of boom-bap beats. Together they make unabashedly ecstatic, mood-elevating music.

Rayne and Jackson met while studying at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music. In 2014, they dropped their first SoundCloud snippets — original songs plus bass-heavy instrumental reimaginings of R. Kelly's "Ignition" and Aaliyah's "Are You That Somebody." Since then, the two have released a steady stream of singles, mixtapes, remixes, and EPs featuring their own songs plus savvy covers. 

Their glossy, panoramic compositions have attracted the attention of the biggest rappers and singers in pop music. Recent production and remix credits include Khalid, Anderson Paak, Lido, and, most notably, the mega-bop "No Problem" by Chance the Rapper with 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne from Chance's Grammy-winning ‘Coloring Book.'

As lifelong students of musical performance, Rayne and Jackson ably translate their polished, sprawling recordings to the live setting. Rayne abuses his drum kit like a sadistic octopus, arms and legs all over the place, sweat flying like rain. Jackson works a bank of keyboards and electronic gear or stalks the stage like an MC, his right hand clutching a trumpet rather than a mic. The pair regularly sell out venues across the U.S. and have blown up festival stages at California's Lightning in a Bottle, Las Vegas' Life Is Beautiful, and Oregon's What the Festival. Their latest Vibrant Tour crisscrosses America and Canada in early 2019.