This incarnation of the Onward Brass Band played often in its early history at picnics, festivals, parades, and baseball games.
Its members included Cag Cagnolatti, Kid Howard, Andrew Morgan, Joe Thomas, Louis Barbarin, Alvin Alcorn, Danny Barker, and Freddie Kohlman.
musicians who have appeared with Onward include Gerald French, Freddie Lonzo, Marc Braud, Leon "Kid Chocolate" Brown, Tom Fischer, Dwayne Paulin, Shannon Powell, David W. Hansen,[2] Kirk Joseph, Ernie Elie, Dimitri Smith, Louis Ford, and Christian Winther.
On Saturday, February 19, 1887, it noted the Onward Brass Band furnished the music at a banquet held for the L’Avenir Juvenile B.A.
Its membership included many New Orleans music legends: in addition to Perez himself, names such as Peter Bocage, Lorenzo Tio Jr., George Baquet, Isidore Barbarin, and even, for a brief time, King Oliver.
This group included several members from the preceding band as well as other fine jazz players such as Freddie Kohlman, Teddy Riley, Jack Willis and Waldren “Frog” Joseph.
During that time, the band continued to make yearly appearances at the annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (It was pictured on the Miller Beer Jazzfest program in 2001.)
“My intentions,” he says, “are not to start something new, but to just insure that Onward and its tradition continues into the twenty-first century, a new era, preserving the spirit of this historic New Orleans band.