Brass Differential

blues · hip hop · roots

Brass Differential is a ten-piece brass band from Green Bay, Wisconsin that debuted in 2012, playing funk, soul, R&B and blues rooted in the New Orleans tradition. Its horn-centered sound is anchored in the low end by a sousaphone, with the rest of the lineup built from guitar, drums, two trumpets, two saxophones, trombone and several vocalists, and arrangements that leave open room for solos. The repertoire is drawn largely from soul, funk and pop standards, including material associated with Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson and Prince, set beside New Orleans second-line staples such as Iko Iko and Mardi Gras Day. The band presents itself as a party band rather than a repertory brass ensemble, and its billing emphasizes danceable setlists over a fixed program. It works steadily around northeastern Wisconsin and the Door County peninsula, and has been a repeat performer in St. Norbert College's Knights on the Fox outdoor concert series, which the band's press materials note has been ranked among USA Today's top ten outdoor concert series. It opened for the masked funk act Here Come the Mummies in 2023 and again in 2026, with its horn players invited onstage during the headliner's set, and it won a 2025 BAMMY, the Bay Area Music Awards presented in the Green Bay region. Its recorded output is limited: the band's own materials cite a tribute single, Big Dog, rather than a full-length album, and it does not publish individual member credits.

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