About
Neslort is the brainchild and muse of one of New Orleans’ most versatile musicians: trombonist and composer Rick Trolsen. While the name derived from spelling his family name backwards, Neslort is the forward moving thread connecting a dynamic musical career. In fact, Trolsen’s lifework and projects are so varied across the spectrum of New Orleans music, that he is sometimes referred to as “a one-man Jazz Festival.” Perhaps that is why so many genres now find a hospitable, albeit alternative, home within Neslort’s self-styled “Primordial Fusion.”
Rick began composing for this band during the most itinerant time of his life, first while living in an abandoned school bus and then a self-made plywood camper on the back of a ’66 Chevy pickup. After moving to New Orleans in 1989, Rick’s talents quickly established him as a popular sideman comfortable with every style of jazz, blues and rock. All of this, along with some of New Orleans finest players, was poured into the original incarnation of Neslort. By the mid-90s, the band had a well-received run through 3 consecutive years at the prestigious New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and also found time for several recordings. After his journey took him to Colorado for mountain air and sunshine, New Orleans called Trolsen back. But even as he toured with stand-out brass bands such as the Nightcrawlers and Bonerama, and expanded his repertoire to embrace Brazilian choro among other trends, Trolsen was always composing and readying for the return of Neslort. Renewed, Refreshed and “Re-formed”…in the sense of molten lava…Neslort enters the second decade of the 21st century with its newest recording “Mystical Scam.” And the band still remains both primordial and forward sounding especially while oozing some of most exhilarating riffs that New Orleans’ best can muster.