THE HOT 8 Brass Band may call their new album On The Spot but the New Orleans musicians with a love of hip-hop, jazz, funk and their home city’s trad brass sound are never in one spot for long.

This year, they have been on the road since late-February to promote the March 31 release of their fifth long player and their zig-zagging global travels have taken them to Australia, New Zealand, London, The Wardrobe in Leeds, Germany, back home to America for four days, and onwards to Poland and more British shows. France and a long stretch of American dates await, culminating in a return to New Orleans for a hometown record release party at the House of Blues on June 10.

Tonight, tube-playing leader Bennie Pete and his band play Pocklington Arts Centre, nominally a seated concert in what was once the town’s cinema.

“I used to be worried about that kind of venue, but we can get’em standing,” he says.

“They can complain sometimes they don’t want people standing, but we’ll get’em up dancing.”

Even if that has to be dancing on the spot. Should you be wondering how The Hot 8 Brass Band’s fifth album acquired that title, here is Bennie’s explanation: “We were doing a parade in New Orleans, and it was time for us to take a little break but the crowd was so enjoying it, we continued playing and came up with a new tune, improvising it, so we called it On The Spot and it became the title track!”

In their 20 years together, The Hot 8 Brass Band have acquired a popularity way beyond the Second Line parades of New Orleans.

“Definitely it’s music with universal appeal. The Hot 8 Brass Band is like a fire that gets hotter and hotter,” says Bennie. “Everyone can’t wait for us to participate in their town.

“When we create a vibe, it’s a joyful sound, but it’s also music that we perform at ‘jazz funerals’, when people are going through losing a loved one and our music helps them cope with their bereavement.”

The Hot 8 Brass Band’s music tends towards the uplifting. “Whatever life brings people, we put that on the backburner and let the music take control when we play,” says Bennie.

This is all the more remarkable, given that no fewer than five members of the band have died since their inception, and trumpeter Terrell “Burger” Batiste lost his legs in a car crash, let alone the devastation that Hurricane Katrina wrought on New Orleans in August 2005.

“We are the people who can do what we do for the rest of the world,” says Bennie. “That’s what helps us go through those times. It’s the life that we’ve lived, and sometimes you can’t prepare for things like that, so you just have to respond and build yourself back up, and the music can help you to do that, bonding together and having an impact on people around us.”

The Hot 8 Brass Band, Pocklington Arts Centre, May 11, 8pm. Box office: pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk or 01759 301547.