The Brand New Life

The Brand New Life, boasts a unique eight-piece instrumentation and a worldly sound influenced by different African traditions, jazz and funk. The band features three horns, three drummers, guitar and bass creating the foundation for their impressive repertoire of completely original music. With the recent addition of expert talking drum player, Mamadou Mbengue, a Wolof griot from Senegal West Africa, the band has developed a distinctively West African sound.

The Brand New Life evolved out of a musical therapy group that helped Devin Foust, a close friend who has Down syndrome, achieve his dream of leading a band like his hero, Ray Charles. The jam sessions were epic, but at the time, the group never imagined that the Devin-inspired free jazz would lead to a robust repertoire of original world-inspired jazz compositions. But that’s what happened, and two years later, The Brand New Life’s songs remain rooted in the initial inspiration that drove the band to create music without boundaries, music built for celebrating all of the emotions of life, from jubilation to frustration and back to bliss.