Published May 14, 2026 02:17PM
If you’ve strolled down Denver’s 16th Street Mall in the last decade, odds are you’ve heard the raucously upbeat sound of a New Orleans-style brass band. With the Rocky Mountains looming beyond the cityscape and some of the best outdoor adventure in the country a stone’s throw from downtown where they play, this band, Brothers of Brass, can be found blending genres and constantly transforming their art as they pay homage to their New Orleans roots—integrating new sounds, new people, and new technologies into the music they make.
They also play brass music outdoors and at 10,000 feet. (Oxygen cans only sometimes required. Yes, seriously.)
In the lead-up to our festival, Outside Days, where they’re slated to perform on Saturday, May 30, we sat down with Armando Lopez, the saxophonist from Brothers of Brass. We asked Lopez about all things music culture in Denver, and why Denver is the perfect melting pot city for musical experimentation.
OUTSIDE: How did a New Orleans brass band end up in Denver, Colorado?
Armando Lopez: Brothers of Brass started from our founder, Khalil Simon (who plays the sousaphone nowadays), busking out of New Orleans and Atlanta, Georgia, and meeting with some very prolific buskers down there out of the Southern brass tradition. They would travel around the country playing what we call “let-outs,” which are just like the egresses of large stadium events. They traveled all around the country doing that and came through Denver multiple times.
And then there was actually a kind of a legal battle with the city [of Denver], where Khalil was arrested for busking outside of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and they confiscated his instruments, and he was playing on a public sidewalk. So he ended up in a legal battle with the city over it, and ended up winning. Then, he was given a court order, basically, that said he could play at this really amazing busking spot. I had my own busking band at the time here in Denver, and I used to go out with our drummer Jake [Herman]. I used to always tell Jake, ” All we need is a tuba, and we’ll be in this thing for real.”
I heard Khalil [playing tuba] from across the 16th Street Mall, so I walked up on him and David Williams, who was playing trumpet at the time, and just played my sax at them. And at first, when they saw me, they were a little wary of me, but we became quick friends. Our sounds blended really well together. Eventually, [Khalil] called me up and said, “Hey, do you want to start a band?” And the rest is history. We had that busking spot, and we were able to supply a living wage to six or seven people.
That’s incredible. Can you bring us forward from that history to playing Outside Days?
Yeah, we were all playing street music full-time. Different people had different opinions about a brass band of young men just playing on the street all the time. We had to get cool with certain business owners. We have a song called “Street Politics” that was just kind of about that struggle. We became well known by the police and the Parks and Rec, and then eventually for playing outside.
And we’re still busking. The band is still holding true to its roots. That’s never going to go away. We’re just going to do it forever. But the volume [has changed] as we’ve gotten older and had kids and started getting in the venues and things. We’re not out there quite as much. We’ve started doing more gigs, like we played Mayor [Mike] Johnston’s inauguration, which was a really wonderful thing. We’ve done events for all kinds of city governments, like the local municipalities around Colorado, in the mountains as well. So we do a lot of that kind of community, city municipality work.
We do a lot with the ski resorts and just bring it up to the mountain, which is super fun to bring the brass all the way up there. We’re pretty good at it. Not too many people try to play the way we play at 9,000 feet, 10,000 feet. Sometimes we need those oxygen cans, but we do a lot of that. In addition to that, we’re writing original music, and we’re getting ready to release an album, hopefully later this year.
We’re just trying to keep the artistic, creative energies alive and make original Colorado brass band music.
What is Colorado Brass Band music? How do the local landscape and outdoor opportunities influence the storytelling and music that you all make?
I think one of the things we have the most fun with is bringing new life to things like [John Denver’s song] “Rocky Mountain High.” We were the official band of the Colorado Summit, which is the ultimate frisbee week, and we played “Rocky Mountain High” on the field to open it up. I mean, it goes beautifully with the brass. I think folks out here just like what we do, and in addition to the straight-up originals with the New Orleans inspiration that we really aspire to, we’re able to also do these covers in a way that most folks just never hear them.
Bluegrass bands do the same thing, right? Bluegrass Bands are playing hip-hop songs. I think Colorado is a really great place for that, because, being in the middle of the country like this, we have people from all over. We have a ton of people from both coasts. We have a bunch of people from the Midwest, and I’m from California. [The band is] a perfect example. I think there’s definitely a lot to say that Colorado is a really unique and fun place to expand.
That’s so cool. I was listening to your new single “Mile High,” and I think it’s the first time I’ve ever heard fourteeners mentioned in a rap verse.
Absolutely. We definitely call that out. We have a couple of originals in which we kind of call out the different cities and different municipalities around here.
Can you give a Brothers-of-Brass-curated list of things to do in Denver for anyone who might be staying beyond Outside Days?
You’ve definitely got to take a stroll down 16th Street Mall, taking in the culture. You’ve gotta see a show down at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. It’s one of the biggest arts complexes in the country, and it’s impeccable. So it’s a very beautiful place to check out. If you want to dance, one of our favorite venues is Cervantes’ [Masterpiece Ballroom] up in the Five Points neighborhood. That’s another area too, the historic Five Points neighborhood, where all the jazz and historic culture of Denver are. It’s a center for jazz musicians. There’s so much to do, so much to see, so much to eat. We really are a special place. You can check out Golden, you can check out Boulder, you can check out Colorado Springs. It’s all just a short drive. The greater Denver metro, as well, is not to be discounted. It’s a beautiful, diverse, and loving place.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed.
