Oklahoma's King Cabbage Brass Band growing an audience with New Orleans-inspired sound

Growing up in Tulsa, Greg "Coach" Fallis made it his goal to move to New Orleans and immerse himself in the Crescent City's signature brass band sound.

When he got to the Big Easy, though, nothing about accomplishing his musical mission was easy, thanks to the arrival of a global pandemic.

"I didn't want to do anything besides play trombone ... and I had planned to go to New Orleans for years and years before COVID happened. That was my plan, so I just stuck to the plan," said Fallis, who lived in Memphis, Tennessee, and played with brass bands there before moving to NOLA.

"It was not a good time to be in New Orleans: It was COVID; it sucked. I went to a lot of jam sessions, I learned a lot, but as far as just general happiness, it wasn't really happening. ... Once I got there, I just missed home."

So, the University of Tulsa alumnus bought a tuba-like sousaphone and started learning to play it, contacted several musicians he'd performed with back home and returned to Oklahoma.

To transplant the New Orleans sound he loves to the Sooner State, he founded the King Cabbage Brass Band.

"Leaving (New Orleans) felt like I was giving up on all my dreams," said Fallis, who also teaches music at Monte Cassino Catholic Middle School in Tulsa. "I didn't know if we would be doing background dinner music gigs, or maybe we'd play twice a month or even once a month. ... But the response was super cool."

Since Fallis planted the group in his hometown two years ago, King Cabbage Brass Band has grown a strong following on Oklahoma's live music scene, with concertgoers savoring their high-energy performances, vibrant original songs, lively covers, matching outfits, snazzy nicknames and, of course, their penchant for parades.

Billed as Oklahoma’s only New Orleans-inspired brass band, King Cabbage Brass Band includes Fallis on trombone and sousaphone; Nicholas “Cookies” Foster on drums; Dave “Freaklips” Johnson, Bishop “Miami” Marsh and Ryan “Cabbage Patch” Hatcher on trumpet; Jordan “Mister Kimchi” Hehl on electric bass and bass drum; Andy “Macho Man Randy Cabbage” McCormick on saxophone; Kristin “Piston” Ruyle on percussion; and Isaac “Duke of Daikon” Washam and Dylan “Shoulders” Ward on trombone.

The King Cabbage Brass Band is playing an Aug. 18 Oklahoma City show at Beer City Music Hall as Fallis and his cohorts ready to release their first studio album this fall. The band leader chatted with The Oklahoman ahead of the OKC concert:

Q: You guys go all out with the whole New Orleans vibe. How much has that contributed to the success you've had?

Fallis: That's a lot of the appeal, for sure. That was my reason for moving to New Orleans: My dream is to play brass band music all the time, and so that's why we did it back here in Tulsa.

I'm a purist in a lot of ways, but just embracing the individuality of the group has been really cool and well received. We are honoring the tradition of New Orleans but putting our own spin on it, and I'd like to think that we found our own voice in that.

Q: How does the creative process work with so many people involved?

Fallis: To have our first rehearsal June 2 (2021) and be able to play a show at Cry Baby Hill in Tulsa for like 1,000 people in less than two weeks, we couldn't have done that without having some awesome arrangers.

Generally, we'll write ideas out on sheet music, maybe on computer notation software ... and we'll collaborate. Myself, Nicholas and Andy, we'll get together, we'll make edits, we'll give each other notes, and then we'll bring it in to the band. ... The arranging piece is a skill that really opened a lot of doors for us, just being able to write this stuff out and read it off tablets. ...

And we'll just text ideas. There's a running joke (we've had) for a long time where we'll be out in public, and any pop song on the radio, we'll just be like, 'brass band?' And it's like Britney Spears' 'Toxic' or something ridiculous.

Q: How do you guys pick songs to cover in your brass band style?

Fallis: It depends on the member, for sure. I'm the one who's going to do the mainstream stuff. I did 'Uptown Funk' ... like a Calypso (song). I did the Beyonce. I just know that stuff's gonna be fun; it's gonna get the crowd really activated and engaged. And I also write original music for the band.

Andy, our saxophone player, will take old lesser-known songs that have been sampled, maybe by like A Tribe Called Quest, but then he finds the original and he wants to arrange that and make that a groove. ... Then, Nicholas, our drummer, he does a little bit of everything, but he's writing a lot of originals that are just really fantastic.

Q: Your band is releasing a self-titled album soon on the AWAL label. What can people expect from the album?

Fallis: The album's coming out Oct. 28. It's got brass band standards, it's got original music, it has modern covers. 'Never Gonna Give You Up’ is on it, but it weirdly goes hard in a cool way. I'm really excited for that.

It's our first studio record, recorded at Cardinal Song (OKC Recording Studio) with Michael Trepagnier. ... The first single, 'Blackberry Brandy,’ is coming out Sept. 1. That's Andy's arrangement. It's from an Austin (Texas) band he used to play with. It's one of those songs that probably nobody's heard. But it's a great song, and we've revamped it for brass band. ... Then, the second single is coming out like Sept. 29, called 'Kings and Queens,' and that's one of my originals. ...

We did a live EP last year at Cain's Ballroom, which was a lot of fun. But the album we had mixed and mastered by Esplanade Studios in New Orleans by Misha Kachkachishvili, who has a Grammy. ... He works with brass bands all the time; he did a great job to make the record pop. It's got the 10-piece band on it: three trumpets, three trombones.

Q: Do you see yourself and the band as representing the time-honored New Orleans brass band tradition?

Fallis: Yeah, for sure. It feels good to bring it here. I asked some of my friends and my roommate in New Orleans who are musicians what they thought about it, like, 'Hey, do you think this would be wack if ... I started a New Orleans brass band in Oklahoma?' And the overwhelming unanimous response was, 'No, this needs to be everywhere. This needs to be all over the world.' So, I guess I feel like a missionary, in a way, just as a representative of it.

But at the same time, I try to be careful ... because I'm not from New Orleans. There's people who grew up in this tradition from the time they were 5 years old carrying a trombone in a parade. Those are the real torchbearers of this music.

So, I'm happy to be encouraged and supported by the people I know in New Orleans, but I also definitely have respect for native New Orleanians and folks who are much more knowledgeable than myself.

King Cabbage Brass Band

• When: 8 p.m. Aug. 18. Doors at 7 p.m.

• Where: Beer City Music Hall, 1141 NW 2.

• Tickets: https://beercitymusichall.com.

• Information: https://kingcabbagebrass.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: King Cabbage Brass Band brings New Orleans-inspired music to Oklahoma