On a New York summer evening in 2009, a gang of brass musicians and percussionists decked out in various shades of denim emerged, blaring and beating, from the subway at Lincoln Center. As they roamed around the plaza, trailed by an itinerant and growing audience, it became clear that this was no mere marching band but a motley dozen virtuosos, playing music that few traditional brass ensembles would touch: a wild transcription of Conlon Nancarrow’s Study No 20 for player piano, Frank Zappa’s Zomby Woof, and Electric Red by the Swedish death metal band Meshuggah. The group is Asphalt Orchestra, an inspired, irreverent spin-off of the Bang on a Can new music franchise that is bringing contemporary music to the streets.

The group’s first, brief recording captures the live performance’s burst of urban energy but not the way it takes over and animates a public space. It also omits the Nancarrow, which deserves to lead off the sequel. These scores come alive in warm air and crowds. Goran Bregovic’s Champagne, a raucous but elegant rendition of a Balkan wedding number, stands up nicely to competition from traffic noises. Tyondal Braxton’s Pulse March, a bristling, Boléro-ish jazz piece, sounds comfortable on a metropolitan sidewalk. And what completes the experience is the sight of musicians standing in an impromptu circle, spitting out complex rhythms and tangy chords. New Orleans has its second line; more strait-laced cities everywhere could get a musical charge from having the Asphalt Orchestra pop up in parks and squares for short stealth concerts. What harried commuter or construction worker on a lunchtime break wouldn’t enjoy a bracing shot of music from an avant-garde brass band?