'Joy-bringers': Local low-commitment band celebrates New Orleans jazz

At backyard seafood boils or parades across the Triangle, it's likely you could find the Durham-based, New Orleans-style jazz band the Bulltown Strutters  sporting unique, colorful clothing and funky personality. 

“Every time someone wants to hire the Bulltown Strutters it’s because they want the joy, so we have become the joy-bringers when it comes to brass band jazz in this area," Blaise Kielar, the leader and music director of the band, said. 

When asked in 2010 to put together a New Orleans-style jazz band for a mock funeral honoring the animals that died in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Kielar, who previously owned an electric violin shop, soon developed the Bulltown Strutters. The initial request turned into a community desire for this style of jazz, Kielar said, and the Strutters have been active ever since.

The band is comprised of a group of horn players and three vocalists. Kielar said the number of performers for gigs varies based on musician availability and the size of the venue, but anywhere from 16 to 24 people currently play with the band. They perform at special events in the Triangle — like Fourth of July or Mardi Gras parades — and in stage gigs or backyards. 

Over time, the band welcomed more members of varying experience levels, some of whom hadn't touched their horns since high school. The only requirement, though, is that they know how to play jazz, Kielar said. 

Although New Orleans jazz has specific instruments, the concentration of members who play these instruments in the Bulltown Strutters has varied over the years.

"It's kind of like a co-op in that everyone brings their knowledge," Kielar said.

The youngest member of the band is in their 20s and the oldest is 85, but Kielar said everyone has equal footing and artistic freedom. 

Band member and trombone player Don Porter first saw the Bulltown Strutters perform at the Carrboro Fourth of July Celebration  parade the first year he moved to Chapel Hill. When he heard them play a mashup of "When the Saints Go Marching In" and Beyoncé's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)," he was inspired, leading to him joining the band in 2019.

"I just thought, you know, I can do that," he said. "This is worth getting the horn back out and practicing for. So I got the info and joined up, and have been doing that ever since."

The band practices two times per month, and Porter, who is a computer science professor at UNC, said it works with his busy schedule. 

Porter said the band members collaborate frequently in rehearsal. He recalled one time when he was struggling with the high range of his trombone and the band's tuba player helped him figure out that he needed a new mouthpiece. 

Band member Greg Hames only played the trumpet very strictly to the music for years, but when he joined the Strutters he was surrounded by people willing to help him learn how to improvise, which is often a requirement for jazz performance. 

“With the Strutters, my first or second rehearsal, they pointed at me to take solos," he said. "That was a really new experience for me to be pushed and encouraged to do that. The group has been a great environment where you can feel safe to do that, whatever your skill level." 

The band's fluid schedule of performances for the next few months isn't set in stone, Kielar said, but they will be performing at the Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance in April.

"I think for a lot of us it's nice to have something that it's okay if we can't make a given gig or rehearsal and we still get to play," Porter said. "I really enjoy that it gets you out in the community and in different walks of life and different places than I would typically see in my daily life." 

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