"The way I play New Orleans traditional jazz is not exactly in the traditional way,” says trumpeter/vocalist Leroy Jones.  “I think it’s where the traditional music has evolved.”

Jones, whose second album on the Columbia label, Props for Pops, a tribute to Louis Armstrong, will be released in Europe this month and the U.S. in January, has seen and been a part of a similar evolution on the brass band scene.

"The same thing happened when I used to play in brass bands. I had the Hur...