Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews grew up in the Treme, a neighborhood just across Rampart Street from New Orleans’ French Quarter. It is what one critic calls "the most musical neighborhood in America's most musical city." With musician relatives galore, he got his start at the age of 6, playing in parades and for the tourists on Bourbon Street.

At 22 and almost six feet tall, he plays trombone and trumpet—and has already played at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York.

"Part of the appeal of Trombone Shorty, when he plays either of the horns he plays, is the raw physical power and beauty of the sound he creates," Wall Street Journal and Village Voice writer Larry Blumenfeld says. "His playing has an edge from Louis Armstrong up through Dizzy Gillespie and beyond, and gains an audience's ear right away."