From a European tour to Madison Square Garden, the Funky Dawgz Brass Band is on a serious roll. And it all started as a one-credit class at UConn.<\/p>\n
\u201cI traveled with the pep band to New Orleans for the women\u2019s basketball championship in 2004 and saw these brass bands on the street,\u201d says\u00a0Marvin McNeill \u201997 MM, then assistant director for the UConn marching band. \u201cI was inspired. Maybe one day we could start that up here.\u201d No wonder he felt optimistic \u2014 UConn defeated Tennessee for the title that week.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly years later did we have the right group of students in the marching band that I thought could pull it off. I sent them an email, described the idea for the brass band, and sent links to some YouTube videos,\u201d says McNeill, now trombonist for the Funky Dawgz and the only member outside the Millennial generation. \u201cPlus, I came up with the name,\u201d he adds, \u201ceven the\u00a0z<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n The Dawgz started practicing weekly, as a one-credit class. Tenor saxophonist\u00a0Tommy Weeks \u201913 (SFA)\u00a0remembers their first show at von der Mehden recital hall on campus. The crowd loved it, jumping out of their seats and dancing. \u201cOur first show off campus was at the Arch Street Tavern in Hartford,\u201d says Weeks. \u201cSoon after that, we played Pub 32 and the place was so packed they couldn\u2019t let people in.\u201d That was when they knew they had something special.<\/p>\n Tracking<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Then things really started to escalate: Two videos went semi-viral: a February 2014 cover of Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s \u201cCrazy in Love\u201d and \u201cGet Lucky\u201d by Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams and an April 2015 cover of \u201cUptown Funk!\u201d by Bruno Mars. Between those, a debut album \u201cNo. 1\u201d came out in August 2014. Then the band backed Dispatch during a sold-out July 2015 concert at Madison Square Garden. \u201cThat was the single most memorable experience of my life,\u201d says Weeks, \u201cnot just with the band.\u201d<\/p>\n In March 2017, Funky Dawgz played Florida\u2019s Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival, which attracted such major acts that year as Usher and The Roots. Their sophomore album \u201cPlace 2 Be\u201d was released in September 2017. And a 2018 European tour took them to England, Ireland, and Spain.<\/p>\n Through all the upward momentum, they never became set in their ways \u2014 including when it came to membership.<\/p>\n When trombone and sousaphone player\u00a0Mike Marsters \u201916 (SFA)\u00a0saw the Dawgz at an ice cream social on campus, he approached McNeill and asked to join. \u201cAbsolutely,\u201d said the frontman.<\/p>\n \u201cI was only a freshman at the time,\u201d says Marsters, \u201cperforming with all these juniors, seniors, and even a professor. People would ask how I joined the band \u2014 because I asked!\u201d<\/p>\n The band topped out at 10 members, but is down to a core of six or seven since the student members all graduated around the mid-2010s. The biggest challenge now is coordinating rehearsals with members in every corner of Connecticut instead of all on campus.<\/p>\n