A lineup of New Orleans jazz mainstays will crowd onto one Frenchmen Street stage next month for a cause that hits close to home: raising money for trumpeter and vocalist Wendell Brunious as he battles stage 4 small cell cancer. The benefit concert, billed as a Night of Music, is set for Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro on October 20 at 7:30 p.m., with proceeds going directly to Brunious and his fight against the disease.
The event is a community benefit for Brunious, according to OffBeat Magazine. It's being presented in partnership with the Jazz Foundation of America, the outlet reported. As WDSU reported, Brunious has performed in New Orleans since he was eleven years old, and the concert's lineup reads like a who's-who of the city's traditional jazz scene: Mark Braud, Bruce Brackman, Freddie Lonzo, Mitchell Player, Meghan Swartz, Roderick Paulin, and Aron Lambert are all slated to perform, with Tom Hook and John Boutte joining as special guests.
Among the performers, Mark Braud carries particular weight — he's Brunious's nephew, continuing a jazz dynasty that traces back to Wendell's father, Juilliard-trained trumpeter John “Picket” Brunious Sr., according to background compiled on Wikipedia. Tickets for the concert are priced at $46.95 and can be purchased through a linked ticket page, per the same WDSU report.
A Financial Crisis Behind the Music
The need is urgent. The benefit is intended to help with Brunious's medical treatment and essential living expenses.
The timing adds another layer to the story. Brunious also received a Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony, honoring a career that has stretched across decades of the city's musical life even as he now fights for his health.
A Career Built Inside Preservation Hall
Brunious's connection to New Orleans jazz institutions runs deep. In June 2023, Preservation Hall officially named him its first-ever Musical Director, a role that built on his history as the hall's youngest-ever bandleader when he took over Kid Thomas Valentine's group in 1987 at age 32, according to Relix. Preservation Hall is an important New Orleans jazz institution, and Brunious's tenure there has made him one of its most visible torchbearers.
His résumé extends well beyond the Hall's doors. Brunious toured globally with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and spent more than 23 years with the group. He also helped shape one of the city's signature culinary-cultural traditions: according to Preservation Hall history records, Brunious and guitarist Justin Adams launched the original jazz brunch at Commander's Palace restaurant in the Garden District back in the mid-1970s, a concept that helped popularize the live jazz brunch nationwide.
His musical roots go back even further. Brunious began playing trumpet at age 11, performed at legendary bandleader Paul Barbarin's funeral as a youth, and recorded his first vocals at age 9 on his father's album Bye and Bye, according to Wikipedia.
The Frenchmen Street Community Rallies
Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro, where the benefit will take place, has long served as an anchor along Frenchmen Street's live-music corridor in Faubourg Marigny, an area with an off-Bourbon character, as Hoodline previously reported.
The October 20 gathering underscores just how tightly connected New Orleans's traditional jazz players remain, especially when one of their own faces a crisis. With institutions like the Jazz Foundation of America and Preservation Hall lending institutional support, and a stage full of fellow musicians — including his own nephew — lining up to perform, the Night of Music aims to ease at least some of the financial pressure Brunious and his family have been carrying since his diagnosis.
