NEW ORLEANS , Louisiana ( CNN ) -- Of all the amazing New Orleans , Louisiana , musicians , my favorite could be Troy `` Trombone Shorty '' Andrews . Troy `` Trombone Shorty '' Andrews performs on the Gentilly stage at the New Orleans Jazz Festival . He cut his teeth at age 4 playing with legends like Bo Diddley . At 19 , he toured with Lenny Kravitz . And now , at age 23 , Trombone Shorty is getting ready to play with Aerosmith and release his latest CD . He 's played every venue in New Orleans you can think of . I had the chance to catch up with him at the 40th annual New Orleans Jazz Festival this week . The following is an edited version of that interview . CNN : You ca n't ask for better weather , better crowd , and to be the face of Congo Square . How does it feel ? Trombone Shorty : Well , it feels great . I 'm happy to be in my city and get a warm reception like that from the audience . And I 'm honored to be on the poster this year , because when they first called me , I thought it was a joke . I thought I had to put in at least 20 more years of work . So for me to be one of the youngest on there ever , I 'm happy . I 'm like a kid in a candy store . I just want to find ways to help the city , and one of the ways to do it is right here at the Jazz Festival . CNN : What does it mean to be here , especially this kind of crowd , on the 40th anniversary [ of the festival ] ? The economy has been bad , but can you put a price tag on what it does to the spirit ? TS : Everywhere I go around the world , we have fans of New Orleans . Sometimes we go places , and people do n't really know who we are , but they know New Orleans , and once we say we are from New Orleans , we have a lot of supporters . To be here on a wonderful day and to have a big crowd of people coming out to help New Orleans is a wonderful thing . CNN : Tell me about your band , the education you got and these young guys playing with you . What you are going to mean to the city as you age and get the recognition that you deserve ? TS : I just want to spearhead and lead a new style of New Orleans music . A lot of people have been doing the same thing for years , and I just want to be one of the people who create the next 50 years of New Orleans . And my band , most of them I got from NOCA ( New Orleans Creative Arts ) , where Wynton Marsalis , Harry Connick and most of those guys graduated . Some of them I met from Loyola , and we all got together . I was a natural musician first , then I went to school , and I got the best young musicians I saw around town , and we have been playing in this band for nine or 10 years now . CNN : I 've seen you the last several years , and you seem much more comfortable as a front man . Not just playing the horn great but leading the crowd , singing . Am I right reading into that ? TS : I wanted to become a better entertainer , and I learned from my brother James Andrews . And I 've been studying some tape of James Brown and different people . I 've just wanted to see what I could do . I just wanted to make people comfortable with seeing a horn . Because if you see a horn on a poster with some guy , you automatically think it 's a sit-down jazz thing . And coming from Treme [ New Orleans ] , everything has been about dancing and second-lining and partying and everything . That 's where I am from , so I just wanted to take that and put it with this style of playing . CNN : Tell me what your favorite food is . Do you get to sample a lot of it ? TS : I got ta say the crawfish monica and the crawfish bread . I like that . I eat it every day . Last year I got sick from eating like 10 of them !
Troy `` Trombone Shorty '' Andrews performs at the New Orleans Jazz Festival . Andrews ' band , Orleans Avenue , is preparing to release new CD . Trombone Shorty is featured on the Congo Square poster for Jazz Fest . ` Comment: