Happy Lance and the Sunrays

Authentic cultural experience honoring the music history of New Orleans.

Happy Lance Brunious is an American performer and showman born in New Orleans, now residing in SaintPaul/Minneapolis, MN. Happy Lance sings, dances, and plays trumpet but, in the past was I.L.I.C.I.T., an award winning Twin Cities rapper and touring vocalist. Happy Lance Brunious has amassed over 2,000 performances in the US & Canada with dancing, singing, drumming, scatting, rapping, trumpeting, whistling, beat-boxing, magic, and theatre. Leading his own band since 2018, Happy Lance Brunious with his band aims to preserve and contribute to his unique heritage tied to the early greats of jazz. Lance is the son of NOLA-based jazz legend Wendell Brunious. Lance’s grandfather, John “Picket” Brunious, a trumpeter and pianist who studied at Juilliard, arranged for Cab Calloway, Billy Eckstine, and Louis Armstrong. Lance’s late great-uncle, Willy Santiago, is reportedly one of the first guitarists ever recorded in American music and played alongside Buddy Bolden, one of the founding fathers of New Orleans ragtime, the precursor to jazz.