The Heavyweights Brass Band to release their second CD

Parkdale Villager, By  Erin Hatfield
When he was 18 years old Christopher Butcher travelled to New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz music, on a family vacation and it set the course of his career.

“It totally changed my life, seeing kids my age playing on the street corner in a brass band with two drummers and 10 horn players,” said Butcher, who, inspired by that event, went on to form The Heavyweights Brass Band, which has toured across Canada and opened for The Roots, Trombone Shorty and Galactic.

The group has played Koerner Hall with Giovanni Hidalgo, a Grammy Award-winning percussionist who has played with the likes of Phish and Paul Simon.

Photo/EDUARDO LIMA

The Heavyweights Brass Band made an appearance on CBC with the children’s television character Mamma Yamma.

“This is music that will make you feel something,” Butcher said. “We put the emphasis on the horns and that is what sets us apart from every other group in Canada. We are just horns.”

Now 28 years old, Butcher, who lives at College Street and Lansdowne Avenue, started to play the trombone in middle school.

“My cousin played it and I just remember thinking it looked cool and it sounded cool,” Butcher said.

Originally from Winnipeg, Butcher come to Toronto to study music at Humber College and when he finished in 2009, he said he was compelled to put together a New Orleans-style jazz band of his own that would be accessible and inspiring to the masses.

This lead to the creation of The Heavyweights Brass Band, which is set to release its second album, Brasstronomical, next month.

The band is composed of Butcher on trombone, Rob Teehan on sousaphone, Paul Metcalfe on saxophones, Lowell Whitty on drums, Jon Challoner on trumpet, and John Pittman, a recent addition, also on trumpet.

“These are some of the most gigging young musicians in Toronto,” Butcher said. “Which is how we came up with the name The Heavyweights.”
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