“I bought a trumpet and learned to play it and started recruiting people.” -John Notarianni, founding member of the Detroit Party Marching Band.

I don’t know what could be more inspiring then that. The Detroit Party Marching Band, founded two years ago, encompass the can-do spirit that often resides in the folks that call this city their home. Though they are not the only renegade style marching band around (check out “What Cheer? Brigade, another great group from Rhode Island), they are bringing down the house in Detroit. In an interview for a documentary created by Nora Mandray, Detroit Part Marching Band founder John Notarianni talks a little about what motivated him to start the group. “I never played in a marching band in high school, I started listening to a lot of Balkins music from Serbia, and I just thought there was so much energy and so much life to what they were doing with music and music from New Orleans as well, which I have always loved. I had that excitement about what you could do with a totally acoustic instrument, were it’s just you and what you do with your body.”

The elusive group rarely promotes upcoming shows, which allows them flexibility to surprise and wow crowds with their exciting shows. The Detroit Party Marching Band moves more like an organic flowing stream of brass through the streets, like you would find in New Orleans, than the well-oiled machines of marching bands past. Its soulful songs often incite dancing and laughter wherever it travels, which is often at Detroit cultural events. However, it has also been known to play at bars, parades, funerals, picnics and bar mitzvahs. If you are antsy to catch it in action, I recieved word the next official opportunity will be Feb. 11, 2012 at the Lager House as a kick-off show for its tour down to Mardi Gras.