A fan of contemporary hip-hop as well as the driving sound of Count Basie’s 1940’s big band, Kansas City based trombone player and bandleader Marcus Lewis decided he wanted to hear what it would sound like if the Count had had the chance to set Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar to his own arrangements. The resulting mélange, which has become an in-demand ‘Brass & Boujee’ attraction, brings its unique fusion of big band and hip-hop as a case study in how, sooner or later, it all comes back to Kansas City R&B.