Mobile's Best-Kept Secret Is 143 Years Old — And It's Just Getting Started
About this episode
The episode discusses the revival of the Excelsior Band and the restoration of the Ace Theater in Mobile, highlighting the city's rich musical heritage.
Something genuinely exciting is happening in Mobile — one of the city's most treasured cultural institutions, the 143-year-old Excelsior Band, is on the verge of a remarkable renaissance. Led by Hosea London, this legendary walking jazz band — founded in 1883 by Creole firemen who played instruments between calls — is preparing to establish a permanent home at the historic Ace Theater on Davis Avenue, a beautifully symbolic resurrection of both a band and a neighborhood. Developer John Ruzic and his firm Porch Light are restoring the 1943 segregation-era theater into a jazz performance venue and education studio that will train the next generation of Mobile musicians, feeding young talent directly into the Excelsior Band's living, unwritten, tradition-to-tradition legacy. The vision is breathtaking: a place where Mobile's extraordinary musical heritage — a city that has quietly produced world-class talent for over a century — is finally given the spotlight it deserves. Top Four Points: 143 years of living tradition — The Excelsior Band has no playlist, no rehearsals, and no written music; everything is passed down person to person, making it one of the most authentic oral jazz…
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