On his most recent feature film, A Lot Like You, in addition to composing an original score, Pete also served as one of the film's producers. He has composed original scores for three feature films as well as shorts for up-and-coming film makers John Jeffcoat and Justin Mitchell. Droge co-wrote (with ex-Eurythmic Dave Stewart) and performed the Main Title theme for the Miramax film, Beautiful Girls.
PETE DROGE BAND LICENSE
Beginning with his breakout hit "If You Don't Love Me (I'll Kill Myself)," which was featured in the blockbuster Dumb and Dumber, Pete Droge has gone on to compose and license original music for television and film, including national ad campaigns for Toyota and T-Mobile, and the ABC smash Grey's Anatomy.Īcademy Award winner Cameron Crowe personally asked Pete Droge to pen an original song for his film Almost Famous. The soulful notes of “Just a Closer Walk With Thee,” a hymn played to send off the dead, echoed into the night.From the time he signed with Rick Rubin's American Recordings in 1993, Pete Droge has enjoyed a successful, multi-faceted career as a recording artist, songwriter, producer, and composer. They led second lines through Treme, Central City and the Garden District. In the days after his death, brass bands in New Orleans mourned him with music. When the Hot 8 recently resumed their Sunday residency at the Howlin’ Wolf, Mr. During the lockdown, his health deteriorated, and he lost 100 pounds. In 2018, he underwent surgery for prostate cancer. Pete suffered a seizure in 2014 and was diagnosed with sarcoidosis. Over the last decade, the Hot 8 began touring regularly in Europe in New Orleans, the band performed on the vaunted stages of Tipitina’s and the annual Jazz & Heritage Festival. Pete is survived by three sons, Brannon, Brennon and Bennie III two stepdaughters, La’Shae Joseph and Laila Trask and two sisters, Yvete and Terneisha Pete. He graduated from Alcée Fortier High School in 1994.
PETE DROGE BAND SERIES
It was only the latest in a series of tragedies for the band.Īs a boy, Bennie attended a Baptist church in the Seventh Ward, where his maternal grandfather was pastor, and he danced in the aisles as he sang gospel music. Their snare drummer, Dinerral Shavers, was shot dead in his car in December 2006. They appeared on the HBO show “ Treme” and recorded with the gospel group the Blind Boys of Alabama.īut even as music returned to New Orleans after the storm, the Hot 8 endured more misfortune. They were signed to a British record label, toured with Lauryn Hill and performed with Mos Def. When Spike Lee learned of the Hot 8, he decided to feature them in his 2006 documentary about New Orleans, “ When the Levees Broke.” The film brought them national attention. “He and the band got busy spreading the culture around.” “Bennie wanted to play for these people to give them that New Orleans love that was missing,” his wife said.
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It wasn’t long before they became local heroes. They drove around in a van, stopping to jam for crowds until little second lines formed, before heading to another part of town.
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Pete and a few bandmates ended up in Atlanta.Īs despair weighed on the city, the Hot 8 began performing at evacuation shelters and emergency medical centers. Countless musicians were displaced and evacuated, and longstanding jazz and blues clubs were left in ruin. The musicians led second lines on Sundays for social aid and pleasure clubs crowds formed at night to watch them play in bars in the Treme neighborhood.Īfter Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, the preservation of New Orleans’s musical heritage became a matter of serious concern. The Hot 8’s repertoire included songs by the Specials and Marvin Gaye, and the band incorporated rap and hip-hop into its style. They’d make a reason to party.”īy 2000, the Hot 8 had established itself as part of a vanguard of young brass bands that were upholding the jazz and funk traditions of New Orleans yet playing with a contemporary sound.
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“He was a popular dog for one of the popular musicians,” he told Esquire magazine in 2014, “and they threw a big second-line parade through the streets for him. Pete once found himself leading a jazz funeral for a dog. They performed outside a housing project in the Central City neighborhood, where people sat down with bags of crawfish and bottles of Abita beer to listen. The Hot 8 began playing for tips on Bourbon Street and in Jackson Square, in the heart of the French Quarter. At 18, he helped bring together two brass bands, the Looney Tunes and the High Steppers, to form the Hot 8. He started playing the tuba at 10 and joined a marching band in middle school.
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Born and raised in the Upper Ninth Ward, Mr.