[1] The group began as an itinerant busking band and has performed around the world, including at music festivals in Mexico,[2] Sweden,[3] Australia,[4] Italy,[5] France,[5] Switzerland,[3] and Spain.

[6][7] For over a decade, Tuba Skinny "has grown steadily in popularity, releasing [ten] albums, frequently touring, and attracting high-profile fans from R. Crumb to Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman.

"[8] Their albums have garnered multiple awards,[9][10][11] and they have been hailed by Offbeat magazine, The Syncopated Times, and other publications as one of the best traditional early jazz bands performing today.

[8][3] The band's fan base has been described as possessing a "lighthearted, fun, flapper vibe," a reflection of the Jazz Age time period evoked by their music.

[21] At least one of the band members was arrested for "bumming for money on Bourbon Street" in the heart of the French Quarter and had learned to play a musical instrument to no longer have to beg for spare change.

"[24][28] A gritty photo-essay chronicling the hardscrabble perambulatory band, The Ballad of the Hobo by photographer James Heil, was published in Time magazine in 2006.

'"[8] When the Dead Man Street Orchestra informally dissolved, Cohn, Jones, Burdick, Wells, Segarra, and other instrumentalists joined the Loose Marbles led by trumpeter Ben Polcer and clarinetist Michael Magro.

[3] Polcer's and Magro's Loose Marbles was "a sort of amalgamated jazz corporation that creates subsidiaries around the city, to maximize tips and minimize boredom.

Over time, as various musicians rolled in and out of the Loose Marbles, new ensembles were born such as chanteuse Meschiya Lake's Little Big Horns Jazz Band[33] and, later, Tuba Skinny.

[8][32][34] By 2009,[15] Shaye Cohn, Barnabus Jones, Kiowa Wells, and Todd Burdick had been frequently playing jazz on Royal Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans while learning an array of various instruments.

Whenever the band's slender[5] sousaphone player, Todd Burdick, would cycle down a street with his iconic instrument in Faubourg Marigny, a random heckler would repeatedly shout: "Hey, look, it's Tuba Skinny!

Unlike revival or pre-revival bands, Tuba Skinny attempts to imitate the sound of traditional jazz in the days "before phonographs were widely available.

They played as a busking band in Hobart, Tasmania[2]—where they recorded their fifth album Pyramid Strut in 2013[3]—and in old town centers throughout mainland Europe such as France, Italy, and Spain.

[2] Reportedly, their least pleasant experience while busking occurred at a flea market in San Severo, Italy, where not a single person lingered to listen to them.

[38] "We're jazz musicians and seek improvisation all the time," frottoirist Rapuzzi explained, "We can't fix ourselves to the same set list of songs let alone the same acts and show routine for another season, all very untrue to the nature of our band.

"[38] In April 2019, the peripatetic band released their tenth album Some Kind-a-Shake which was recorded at The Living Room Studio in New Orleans and featured nine instrumentalists.

[39] In addition to traditional jazz and blues songs, the album featured two original compositions, "Some Kind-a-Shake" by Cohn, and "Berlin Rag" by noted clarinetist Ewan Bleach.

[40][41] Their selection of deserving tunes has garnered praise and the following is especially noteworthy: "New Orleans Bump," "Cushion Foot Stomp," "You Can Have My Husband," "Jackson Stomp," "Deep Henderson," "Banjoreno," "Treasures Untold," "Russian Rag," "Oriental Strut," "Minor Drag," "Michigander Blues," "In Harlem's Araby," "Me and My Chauffeur," "A Jazz Battle," "Droppin' Shucks," "Fourth Street Mess Around," and "Carpet Alley Breakdown.

And, while it's evident the band treasures the sense of history evoked by these vintage tunes, the players' natural exuberance makes the music feel irresistibly alive.

On the instrumental numbers, Cohn's cornet outlined the melody and also engaged in spirited three-way conversations with Barnabus Jones' trombone and Jon Doyle's agile clarinet.

Washboard player Robin Rapuzzi frolicked on the sidelines, his rhythmic explorations as captivating to watch as they were to listen to – even when the band was temporarily upstaged by a troupe of swing dancers, who launched into an athletic routine peppered with break-out solos and acrobatic air steps, offering a physical manifestation of the joy Tuba Skinny seem to bring with them wherever they go.