Wendell Brunious is an American jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 trumpeter and bandleader

Bandleader

A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....

.

Brunious's father was John "Picket" Brunious, who was a trumpeter who studied at Juilliard, played with the Onward Brass Band

Onward Brass Band

The Onward Brass Band was the name of two brass bands active in New Orleans for extended periods of time.-Onward Brass Band :This incarnation of the Onward Brass Band played often in its early history at picnics, festivals, parades, and baseball games...

, Young Tuxedo Brass Band

Young Tuxedo Brass Band

The Young Tuxedo Brass Band is a brass band from New Orleans, which was influential on the New Orleans jazz scene in the years after World War II....

, and Paul Barbarin

Paul Barbarin

Adolphe Paul Barbarin was a New Orleans jazz drummer, usually regarded as one of the very best of the pre-Big Band era jazz drummers...

, and arranged for Billy Eckstine

Billy Eckstine

William Clarence Eckstine was an American singer of ballads and a bandleader of the swing era. Eckstine's smooth baritone and distinctive vibrato broke down barriers throughout the 1940s, first as leader of the original bop big-band, then as the first romantic black male in popular...

 and Cab Calloway

Cab Calloway

Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....

. Brunious sang in Chief John and the Mahogany Hall Stompers in the 1960s, a group in which his father was also a member. He began on trumpet at age 11 and played at Paul Barbarin's funeral

Jazz funeral

Jazz funeral is a common name for a funeral tradition with music which developed in New Orleans, Louisiana.The term "jazz funeral" was long in use by observers from elsewhere, but was generally disdained as inappropriate by most New Orleans musicians and practitioners of the tradition...

. He studied at Southern University

Southern University

Southern University and A&M College is a historically black college located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The Baton Rouge campus is located on Scott’s Bluff overlooking the Mississippi River in the northern section...

 (where he played with Danny Barker

Danny Barker

Danny Barker , born Daniel Moses Barker, was a jazz banjoist, singer, guitarist, songwriter, ukelele player and author from New Orleans, founder of the locally famous Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band...

) and played dance music in clubs on Bourbon Street

Bourbon Street

Bourbon Street is a famous and historic street that spans the length of the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana. When founded in 1718, the city was originally centered around the French Quarter...

 in the middle of the 1970s.

In 1976, Brunious subbed in for his father in Albert "Papa" French's band for Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras

The terms "Mardi Gras" , "Mardi Gras season", and "Carnival season", in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday...

, and by 1979 was playing regularly at Preservation Hall

Preservation Hall

Preservation Hall is a noted jazz performance hall located at 726 St. Peter Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. It hosts nightly concerts featuring a rotating roster of bands. The bands of Preservation Hall typically perform jazz in the New Orleans style.Despite the fame of the...

 with Kid Thomas Valentine

Kid Thomas Valentine

Thomas Valentine, commonly known as Kid Thomas was a jazz trumpeter and bandleader.Kid Thomas was born in Reserve, Louisiana and came to New Orleans in his youth. He gained a reputation as a hot trumpet man in the early 1920s. Starting in 1926 he led his own band, for decades based in the New...

. He was named leader of the group upon Valentine's death in 1987. He also played with the Eureka Brass Band

Eureka Brass Band

The Eureka Brass Band was a brass band from New Orleans, active from 1920 to 1975.The group was founded by trumpeter Willie Wilson, and its early members included clarinetists Willie Parker, John Casimir, and George Lewis...

 (1980), Lionel Hampton

Lionel Hampton

Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...

 (1981), Linda Hopkins

Linda Hopkins

Linda Hopkins is an African American actress and blues and gospel singer. She has recorded classic, traditional, and urban blues, and performed R&B and soul, jazz, and show tunes, all with distinction and style since the 1950s....

 (1984), and Sammy Rimington

Sammy Rimington

Samuel 'Sammy' Rimington , is an English jazz reed player. He has been an active New Orleans jazz revivalist since the late 1950s....

 (1984). He played with Louis Nelson

Louis Nelson

Louis Nelson was a trombonist most associated with the jazz originating in New Orleans near the turn of the twentieth century, sometimes referred to as Dixieland music....

 in 1987-89, and did recordings with the Caledonia Jazz Band of Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 in 1985 and 1987. His first record as a leader came in 1986, which featured Nelson, Rimington, and Barry Martyn

Barry Martyn

Barry Martyn is an English born jazz drummer, active principally on the New Orleans jazz revival circuit....

 as sidemen. He later played with Michael White

Michael White (clarinetist)

Michael White is a jazz clarinetist, bandleader, composer, jazz historian and musical educator...

, Chris Barber

Chris Barber

Donald Christopher 'Chris' Barber is best known as a jazz trombonist. As well as scoring a UK top twenty trad jazz hit he helped the careers of many musicians, notably the blues singer Ottilie Patterson, who was at one time his wife, and vocalist/banjoist Lonnie Donegan, whose appearances with...

, Papa Don Vappie, Bob Wilber

Bob Wilber

Bob Wilber is an internationally recognized American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist and band leader living in Chipping Campden, England. Although his scope covers a wide range of jazz, Wilber has been a dedicated advocate of classic styles, working throughout his career to present traditional jazz...

 and the Pfister Sisters. He remained a regular performer at Preservation Hall into the 2000s.

He is currently living in Sweden with clarinetist Caroline Fromell and their son Jonathan.
The two met and later fell in love when Wendell gave Caroline private lessons in jazz improvisation while she attended the University of New Orleans.

Discography

• In the Tradition (GHB Records, 1986)
• Down In Honky Tonk Town (Wendell Brunious - Great Ideas Hb, 1996, September 9th at Audiophile Studio, New Orleans)
• Wendell Brunious (Wendell Brunious - Great Ideas Hb, 1998, August 28th in New Orleans)
• Mama Don't Allow It (GHB, 2003)