Bennie Pete, sousaphonist and founding member of the Hot 8 Brass Band, died on September 6 at New Orleans East Hospital. He was 45.
Pete’s wife Lameka Segura posted to Facebook on September 5 that “on August 18, Bennie fainted at home only to find out that he was positive with Covid-19 and a few days later that our four younger kids was positive as well … he is still in critical but stable condition.”
On the website for the Hot 8 Brass Band, jazz scholar and musician Dr. Michael White provided a biography of the Hot 8.
“For over 20 years one of the most popular and visible funk-style brass bands in community parades and funerals has been the Hot 8 Brass Band. In 1996 sousaphone player Bennie Pete was instrumental in merging two former Fortier High School student groups, the High Steppers and the Looney Tunes Brass Bands, to form the Hot 8. The players grew up together and maintain strong, family-like bonds and regular membership. Most of them were born between 1975 and ’87 in a generation that grew up hearing mainly modern-style brass bands in community functions.”
in 2014, OffBeat reported that the Hot 8 suspended touring due to Pete’s health issues. At the time Pete said, “The Hot 8 Brass Band has been my life for 20 years. I’ve played to audiences all over the world. I’ve loved and lost band members I thought of as brothers. But as a new father, I have some new perspectives on the life I was leading – and the lives of a lot of New Orleans musicians. We are in danger every day in these violent streets—everybody knows that. But we put ourselves in danger, too, by disrespecting ourselves with unhealthy lifestyles.”
A 2014 article by Morris Kessler published in Esquire noted that “Pete grew up around music, his mom singing along to the radio while she cooked. At church, where his grandfather was a pastor, he got into gospel. Like practically all of the Hot 8, he started out in a school marching band. Later, some friends who needed a tuba player persuaded him to join their new brass band, the Looney Toones. ‘We had a lot of energy,’ he says. ‘Marching bands are big, 150, 200 people. It’s hard to be recognized amongst all of that—they might have 10 tubas, 30 trumpets. With a smaller version, a brass band, you get to show yourself. It was fun, it was just something that happened and kind of grew on me, and we went to doing better performances, better gigs, getting known.’ ”
Several members of the Hot 8 have died under tragic circumstances. In 1996, 17-year-old trumpet player Jacob Johnson was found shot execution style in his home. In August 2004, trombonist Joseph Williams was shot and killed by New Orleans police officers outside a convenience store in the Treme neighborhood. That same year, fellow trombonist Demond Dorsey died from a heart attack at age 28. In December 2006, drummer Dinerral Shavers was shot and killed on Dumaine Street in Treme. Police said the bullet was intended for Shaver’s 15-year-old stepson Thaddeus.
Funeral arrangements are yet unknown though a second line parade is being planned according to a facebook post by Hot 8 band member Chris Cotton who wrote, “”We gonna second line for Bennie Pete because we know he is at peace and no longer suffering. I’m gonna be sad, b ut we gonna celebrate his life for a long time to come.”
Watch a interview Pete from OffBeat‘s Talk Back video series.
