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Trombone Shorty is the best-known moniker for Troy Andrews. He was born into a well-known New Orleans musical family in 1986. His grandfather, Jessie Hill, was a locally popular R&B recording artist. His older brother, James "12" Andrews, was a successful jazz trumpeter who was also an early mentor. Andrews began playing music at a very early age and was playing professionally at the age of five. He mastered trombone, trumpet, and drums, eventually choosing the trombone as his principal instrument and thus picking up his nickname. So advanced was he that, at the age of eight, a club in the city’s Tremé district, where he was born and raised, was named Trombone Shorts in his honor. Andrews became a member of the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts' (NOCCA) musical education program for high school students; other graduates included Harry Connick, Jr., Nicholas Payton, and Wynton and Branford Marsalis. At NOCCA, Andrews took music theory, ear training, and instrumental instruction ...