As if we didn’t already know that Dave Grohl is the coolest dude in rock n’ roll, he goes off and does some more cool shit that makes him even more epic of an artist. This past weekend at Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans, during the Foo Fighters headlining performance, Grohl and Co. invited quickly-ascending legend of the New Orleans music scene, Trombone Shorty, out to jam with the band for a few minutes, showcasing his skills on the first single the band released back in 1995, “This Is A Call.”
To backtrack a bit, during the making of their latest album, Sonic Highways, the Foo Fighters traveled to different locales across the country with deep music history roots to document the recording of a song to be written in that particular city. Along the way, the band went to New Orleans to lay down the track “In The Clear,” which the Preservation Jazz Hall Band makes an appearance on with their legendary horns (a first for the Foo Fighters as well). It was in NOLA that Grohl met Troy Andrews, aka Trombone Shorty, sparked a friendship, and now invites him onstage to solo during a Foo jam session. If anything, what Sonic Highways proves is that, through musical osmosis, even a straight-forward, seasoned rock band such as the Foo Fighters can learn some new tricks when put in a new situation (such as spending a full week in places such as New Orleans, Nashville, Chicago, etc.)
If you aren’t paying attention to the Sonic Highways weekly episode on HBO, you are doing yourself a disservice. It’s sheer brilliance acting as an hour-long education on eight incredibly diverse, yet American, cities around the country.