Newman Taylor Baker

Newman Taylor Baker, known artistically as WashboardXT, has been hailed as “a true virtuoso of the washboard,” “astonishing,” and “simply amazing.” After more than five decades as an internationally respected jazz drummer, Baker experienced a profound artistic shift in 2010 when he first picked up the washboard while performing with the Ebony Hillbillies. That moment opened a new creative and personal chapter, prompting him to explore his family’s history and the deeper cultural meaning embedded in the instrument’s sound.

His research led him to the remarkable legacy of his paternal grandfather, Rev. Dr. T. Nelson Baker—the only formerly enslaved student to earn both a Bachelor of Divinity (1893) and a PhD in Philosophy (1903) from Yale University. Traveling to Pittsfield and Boston, Massachusetts; New Haven, Connecticut; and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, Newman uncovered parallels between his grandfather’s achievements and the washboard’s prominence in 19th‐century African American life. This connection continues to shape his artistic vision.

Baker understands the washboard as a sonic vessel carrying the social history of enslaved Africans in the United States—a history of resilience, coded survival, and creative brilliance. He believes the instrument’s voice holds a message urgently relevant to the present: a reminder of the strength, love, faith, and action needed to build a more equitable society. His 21st‐century washboard music is offered as a balm and a call to collective uplift, honoring the past while imagining a more just future.

Approaching the washboard as a hand drum, Baker centers touch as the foundation of his technique, drawing out the instrument’s wide dynamic and emotional range. His setup blends tradition with innovation: 12‐gauge shotgun shells worn on his fingers, an air microphone, a contact microphone, a multi‐effects pedal, and a two‐channel amplifier. This hybrid acoustic‐electronic language gives WashboardXT a contemporary sonic identity that is both rooted and forward‐looking.

His groundbreaking work has earned recognition through awards and grants, including a NYFA/NYSCA Music and Sound Award (2019), a New Music USA Grant (2018), and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists award (2023).

Recent highlights for WashboardXT include the CD release of Touzle Your Kurchy Frank London’s Loisaida Fife and Drum Corp (August 2026) and appearances with Vienna Carroll and the Folk at The Bitter End, NYC (February and September 2026; May and September 2025); Andrew Lamb’s Circadian Spheres Of Light Project at St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery (August 2026); Andrea Baker’s Sing Sistah Sing: Tales of Transatlantic Freedom with Andrea Baker and Howard Moody (Dennis Union Church, Rose Academy, MA 2025; King University, Bristol, TN 2024); An Evening of Solo Washboard at Bin 141, NYC (2025); Seiki Yukimoto’s SoulBleed East Meets West at Nublu, NYC (2025, 2024, 2023); and the Onassis Foundation’s Cavafy Marathon at The Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church (2023).

Criss-Cross Big Band

A performance experience devised in October 2023 by Frank London, Kenny Wolleson, Elijah J. Thomas, and Skyler Hagner, composed of various sonic, aesthetic, and lived experiences all intersecting at different points and different degrees in time. Such convergence of various experiences breeds the unexpected and the familiar, the known and yet unheard, in the tradition of forerunner musician Thelonious Sphere Monk and the very tune after which this ensemble is named!

Loove Ritual Brass Ensemble

Josh Roseman is a New York-based jazz trombonist whose presence has been felt in the downtown scene of improvisers from the 1990s onward.

Born June 5, 1967, in Boston, he picked up the trombone because it was the most prevalent instrument in his household. His father, uncle, and cousins were all musicians. Moving to higher education, Roseman stayed close to home, studying at both the Berklee and New England Conservatories. A quintessential sideman, Roseman has played with Dave Holland, Don Byron, Steve Coleman, Dave Douglas, Jason Moran, the Skatelites, the Roots, John Zorn, Medeski Martin & Wood, Meshell Ndegeocello, and the late Lester Bowie, as well as leading his own bands. His album New Constellations was released in the U.S. by Russ’s Accurate Records. Roseman is busy aside from staged music, as a trombone instructor and improvisation coach for the New School for Social Research at NYU, the Harlem School for the Arts, and the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada.

About the Band

Swunky Z

Swunky Z is a spicy dish made  of  "Swing" and "Funk" or "Swunk."
Our taste is straight outta New Orleans.  
You can run and you can hide....but you can't sit still. 

https://lilywhitemusic.com/swunky-z-brass-band/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_-qUdKPXpM

Honk N’ Groove

Natalia Muñoz is a Colombian, Brooklyn-based Multidisciplinary Artist and Educator, Theatre Practitioner, Movement Facilitator, and Artivist. As a multidisciplinary artist, she uses the transformative power of both the performing arts and visual arts to unlock the unique creative potential of young people, guiding them to develop their creative competencies, connect collectively, and find their personal voices to become leaders within their communities. Natalia is deeply passionate about using the power of the arts to transform oppression into a source of power, healing, and creative awareness.

Bloco Honk

Angela Rey is a percussionist, conductor, and educator with 14 years of teaching experience. Every year she travels to Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, to study with master percussionists from Timbalada, Olodum, Ilê Aiyê, Dida, Yaya Muxima, Agbelas, and more. She teaches primarily in English, with experience leading lessons in Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. In New York, she is a conductor and percussionist with Mambembé NYC, serves as a Brazilian percussionist at Mark Morris, and is an active member of the city's Brazilian percussion and dance community.

Angela is the founder of Rey Music & Arts and has built working relationships with the Brazilian music and dance community both nationally and internationally. She also runs a piano studio, is an educational partner of Steinway & Sons, and collaborates with leading performing arts institutions in San Francisco and New York City. Her students have a track record of a 100% pass rate on internationally standardized piano exams.

Her own path began in San Francisco, where she trained as a scholarship student with Alla Gladysheva at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. As a young adult she immersed herself in the city's Cuban and Brazilian music scenes, playing with ensembles in both traditions, before earning her BA in Global Jazz Studies at UCLA under the mentorship of Arturo O'Farrill.

Peniel Guerrier Dance

Peniel Guerrier, teacher, choreographer, performer and founder of Kriye Bode, focuses on the research, preservation, education, promotion and presentation of Haitian culture through music and dance. He began his formal dance training in 1987 under the supervision of Haiti's most prestigious teacher, Herve Maxi. Subsequently, Peniel danced with the National Dance Theater for 8 years and toured all over the world: Venezuela, Paris, Hungary, Japan, Germany, Montreal, Santo-Domingo and the United States. During this time, he also toured with the Bacoulou Dance Company.

Peniel’s vision has different aspects, but the most important is to establish and extend the Haitian folkloric structure and technique. Peniel Guerrier draws on his extensive knowledge of Haitian folkloric dance to create original combinations within the different traditional Haitian rhythms. His dances enhance the energy and flow of traditional forms with beautiful, vivid body shapes. Peniel is highly regarded as a teacher because of his thoroughness, his kindness, and the individual attention he gives to students of all levels. Peniel has been teaching Haitian dance structure for the past 15 years. Currently, he teaches at Djoniba Dance and Drum Center (Peridance) New York, Fit 4 Dance Brooklyn, PMT studio in NYC, and different public schools and universities throughout the New-York area.

Peniel’s dance and teaching experience has provided him with numerous opportunities to work with individuals of varied ages, backgrounds and cultures all over the world. His teaching has included work with children where he was successful in providing them not only with an appreciation of dance, rhythm and an understanding of Haitian culture, but also an introduction to the concepts of teamwork and cooperation.

Tarab Ensemble ft. Zafer Tawil

Zafer Tawil is an accomplished Palestinian musician and a virtuoso on ‘oud, qanun, violin, and Arab percussion. He performs across the U.S. and in the Middle East with such musicians as Sting as well as celebrated world music artists. He was a featured composer and performer in acclaimed director Jonathan Demme’s Oscar-nominated film “Rachel Getting Married” and is composing and performing for Demme’s next film project, Zeitoun. Zafer is continuously exploring the boundaries of Arab music, and often performs collaborative concerts involving classical Indian and Persian music, as well as Jazz fusion. He has been a guest teacher at workshops on Arab music at many institutions and universities across the United States. A native of Jerusalem, he resides in New York City.

https://www.instagram.com/zafertawil/

HONK Family Band

To close our opening night, Indofunk Satish will curate a jam session celebrating the spirit of jazz, New Orleans street bands, and spontaneous collaboration. Bring your instrument, meet some fellow musicians, and jump into the music. Songs will be drawn from the New Orleans brass band repertoire, but all you need is your enthusiasm for improvisation!

Pressure Point Brass Band

With members spanning the musical worlds of klezmer, jazz, Balkan, ska, and more, Pressure Point Brass delivers critical social justice insights with the beauty of woodwind and brass voices, alongside generous helpings of the kinds of fun, offbeat covers that you didn’t know you needed.

IG: @pressurepointbrass 

Mambembé NY

A bembé is a party for the Orishas. During a bembé the Orishas are praised, saluted and entreated to join the party through `mounting' one of the priests or priestesses in attendance. This is done through a confluence of the song, rhythm, and movement, all calling to the Orisha in such a way that the Orisha will recognize themselves in the lyrics, rhythms and dances as they have been performed for them for perhaps thousands of years.

The rhythms play an important part of the equation and the drummers practice assiduously for years to be able to play the intricate rhythms correctly. This is important since the drums are actually speaking to the Orishas as the Yoruba language is a tonal one and the drums are tuned in such a way as to play the tones of Yoruba speech. For this reason some rhythms are never played unless it is in religious context as it would offend the Orisha. These rhythms are actually prayers to the deities with each Orisha having its own rhythms associated with them.

Batalá New York

Batalá New York is the premier all-womxn, Black-led, percussion ensemble activating partnerships, community building, and cultural awareness through high-energy performances of Afro-Brazilian music and dance.

We are transforming images of women by presenting a loud, fearless, diverse and resilient community of female drummers. We perform all over the New York region in concert halls, at community centers, parks and gardens, on the streets, at protests, and at renowned cultural institutions.

Funkrust Brass Band

Funkrust Brass Band is an NYC-based, 20-piece disco-punk brass band from the future, playing all original music with megaphone vocals, heavy tuba bass lines, thundering percussion and searing brass melodies. Their explosive live performances feature full band choreography, signature wasteland/glam uniforms and LED lighting effects. The band mixes post-punk, disco, EDM, metal, and funk with Balkan brass, filtered through the medium of a massive street brass band with a punk rock sensibility.

HONK Family Band

To close our opening night, Indofunk Satish will curate a jam session celebrating the spirit of jazz, New Orleans street bands, and spontaneous collaboration. Bring your instrument, meet some fellow musicians, and jump into the music. Songs will be drawn from the New Orleans brass band repertoire, but all you need is your enthusiasm for improvisation!

Stefan Zeniuk's GHOST BAND

Ghost Band Plays Ghost Venues, a project of musician Stefan Zeniuk and HONK NYC!, honors creative spaces that once were.  Parade through multiple generations – and genres – of music history, haunting once revered but now shuttered music halls, sites currently home to boutiques, banks, and hotels. The hallowed incubators of NYC’s musical heritage may be gone but are not forgotten. Touch the past and sing a song for the town that continues to inspire.

A ghostly parade for long-lost local music venues - EV Grieve

Is that a tuba in aisle 3? Renegade brass band performs in bygone Lower East Side landmarks. - Gothamist

Afoxé Alkebulan Acá

Afoxé Alkebulan Acá is an Afro‑Atlantic practice of percussion, song, and public ritual based in the global crossroads known as NYC. This project, led by master percussionist Okai Musik and educator-leader Deinya Phenix, is inspired by African Diasporic artistic traditions and cross-cultural experiences that have led to fusions such as jazz, salsa, and hip hop. In that in-between space, we have called upon disparate peoples into a musical Black family reunion enriched with aché, solidarity, joy, and belonging.

Instagram:
@deinya
@okaimusik

https://youtu.be/pNBgkO4jG7I?si=B8s5ocV9n3sRCcdh

Inconvenient Brass Band

Inconvenient Brass Band puts a horn in your side.

Instagram:
@inconvenientbrassband

Hungry March Band

Celebrating over 20 years of bringing live musical spectacle to the people of New York City and beyond is Hungry March Band, a brass, percussion, and performance ensemble.

Founded in Brooklyn in 1997 for the Coney Island Mermaid Parade, HMB embodies the spirit of NYC’s streets with an inimitable brass sound and inspired, eclectic dance.

HMB has shared their creativity with audiences around the United States, South America, and Europe, where they’ve been embraced by a longstanding community of brass bands.

A unique sonic voice has emerged from the recording of their four self-released albums—one that melds their musical knowledge of big band, traditional, and free jazz, with punk rock and global brass influences.

No Small Money Brass Band

NYC's premier brass band playing the music of Africa and the Caribbean since 2008

Instagram: @nosmallmoney

Bhangra Liberation Orchestra

The Bhangra Liberation Orchestra makes rebellious and joyful music to fortify our hearts on and off the dancefloor. Rooted in the genres of bhangra, qawwali, Afrobeat, and jazz, BLO draws from Punjabi ancestral wisdom with a heavy dose of musical improvisation to deliver a clear message of love, unity, and liberation in these times of rising authoritarianism and attacks on the marginalized. Anthemic brassy melodies intersect with angular guitar lines, hype dhol beats, and ecstatic vocals in Punjabi, English, and Spanish.

bhangraliberation.com
sonnysingh.com/videos

HONK Family Band

To close our opening night, Indofunk Satish will curate a jam session celebrating the spirit of jazz, New Orleans street bands, and spontaneous collaboration. Bring your instrument, meet some fellow musicians, and jump into the music. Songs will be drawn from the New Orleans brass band repertoire, but all you need is your enthusiasm for improvisation!

Find us at NYC DOT's Summer Streets Every Saturday!

August is upon us, which means one thing at House of HONK!: SUMMER STREETS. See the full schedule of dates HERE

NYC DOT’s miles-long celebration of the open road offers New Yorkers a unique opportunity to explore our city from a calm location in the middle of a car-free avenue. And with that, the DOT activates the Open Streets with dance, music, crafts, sports and more. This is House of HONK!’s 7th year partnering with the DOT for Summer Streets, presenting music, movement and making all over Manhattan and Brooklyn.

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AUGUST 23rd

📍Eastern Parkway between Buffalo Ave & Rochester Ave - 10am to 3p
★Host: Adam RealMan

• 10am: Vado Diomande Trio - Master percussionist Vado opens the day with drum and dance from West Africa.

• 11am:  Peter Apfelbaum Hieroglyphics Trio - Serious groove with multi-instrumentalist Peter Apfelbaum and a tight power trio of his expansive Hieroglyphics project.

• 12pm: Altin Sencalar Cordless Trio - Mater trombonist Altin Sencalar performs unplugged and gets groovy with his trio of joy.

• 1pm:  HONK Family Band - The "house band" of HONK NYC!, HONK Family Band brings global carnival music to audiences across Gotham.

• 2pm:  PÚYALOAHÍ - This ensemble brings Afro-Indigenous sounds to the heart of Brooklyn, celebrating cumbia music and connecting with the sounds of Colombia

📍12p NOON - Bronx Mosholu Pkwy Rest Stop - On Grand Concourse between E.Mosholu Pkwy S. & Van Cortlandt Ave E.
★ Batala New York

Find us at NYC DOT's Summer Streets Every Saturday!

August is upon us, which means one thing at House of HONK!: SUMMER STREETS. See the full schedule of dates HERE

NYC DOT’s miles-long celebration of the open road offers New Yorkers a unique opportunity to explore our city from a calm location in the middle of a car-free avenue. And with that, the DOT activates the Open Streets with dance, music, crafts, sports and more. This is House of HONK!’s 7th year partnering with the DOT for Summer Streets, presenting music, movement and making all over Manhattan and Brooklyn.

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AUGUST 16th

📍Midtown Rest Stop - 10am to 3p - Park Avenue between 51st and 52nd Streets
★Host: Sage Sovereign

• 10am: Unbound Strings presents a unique take on classical music, featuring Khristine Raymond and Adam Barth.

• 11am: BIXology plays the music of early jazz artist Bix Beiderbecke and beyond.

• 12pm: Brass Monkeys - Dance to the riotous brass stylings of pop favorites from this hard hitting group of players.

• 1pm: Batalá NY - The city's premiere all-women samba reggae ensemble lights up Midtown with their powerful drumming.

• 2pm: VIVA - Flamboyant rock and roll with deep grooves that will lift your spirits high.

📍12p NOON - 109th and Park Avenue  
★ Mambembe NY

Find us at NYC DOT's Summer Streets Every Saturday!

August is upon us, which means one thing at House of HONK!: SUMMER STREETS. See the full schedule of dates HERE

NYC DOT’s miles-long celebration of the open road offers New Yorkers a unique opportunity to explore our city from a calm location in the middle of a car-free avenue. And with that, the DOT activates the Open Streets with dance, music, crafts, sports and more. This is House of HONK!’s 7th year partnering with the DOT for Summer Streets, presenting music, movement and making all over Manhattan and Brooklyn.

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Saturday August 9th, 2025
10am - 3pm
📍Location TBD
★ Host: Viva Lamore

• 10am: Theatre of Divine Resonance - Jambient groove music for a dreamy Summer Street morning, led by trumpeter Indofunk Satish.

• 11am:  Flor de Massapê, F. Hostins, is a dynamic Brazilian trio bringing the joyful sounds of forró to the streets of New York City.

• 12pm: The Rose Thorn Memorial Marimba Band- Kenny Wollesen's ambitious musical presentation of marimba driven music on the Summer Streets.

• 1pm: Mariachi Real de Mexico - The city's premiere mariachi, celebrating over 30 years of bringing the music of Mexico to NY, led by Ramon Ponce Jr.

• 2pm: HONK Family Band - The "house band" of HONK NYC!, HONK Family Band brings global carnival music to audiences across Gotham.