Social Clubs, Brass bands, Jazz Funerals and Second line
Early New Orleans brass band |
The tradition of brass bands in New Orleans appeared in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a fusion between European military bands and African traditional music (especially from the Yoruba culture of Nigeria) brought by enslaved West Africans. New Orleans Brass bands played a significant role in the development of early jazz.
Parade of the Young Men Olympian Junior Benevolent Association |
Created in almost each ward of New Orleans, the SAPCs social activities consisted in assisting members through illness and other difficulties, and in particular supporting families with burial costs for deceased members. These SAPCs had each their own brass band which among other duties were accompanying funeral processions, giving birth to the traditional New Orleans “jazz funerals”.
These jazz funerals and their following “second line” parades were a transplantation of African animist traditions that believed in celebrating the member's spirit leaving the body to return to the ancestors.
The SAPC members march in a dirge with a brass band playing appropriate tunes before the deceased spirit is "cut loose" from his mortal body. The brass band then changes repertoire and engages in rejoicing tunes followed by the dancing crowd. This joyous celebratory parade is called “second line”.
After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, in the very last days of August 2005, the first second line parade was held as soon as October 2005, organized by the Black Men of Labor SAPC !
Each year those same clubs exercised their social mission with a colorful public second line parade through their home community. The voluntary exaggerated strutting steps of second line dancers (or “steppers”) also have their origins in the dances performed by the slaves on Sundays,
their day off, in Congo Square (an open space, now within Louis Armstrong Park, in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans, just north of the French Quarter).
A young snare drummer |
A second line snare drummer commonly followed the brass band, playing off the marching beat with improvised poly-rhythmic figures that could inspire second line dancers or, if the band was improvising, the band itself. Traditional second line drumming styles became a feature of early jazz drumming, of the 1950's New Orleans rhythm'n'blues, and of most contemporary brass bands.
The HBO very realistic series “Tremé” features existing brass bands as the Rebirth Brass Band, the Tremé Brass Band, the Red Stick Ramblers...
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
DDBB at the Glass House, 1982 |
Chapter III of “Journey to Nawlins” was already entirely devoted to the pioneers of the mid-1970's brass band revival who were among the first brass groups to include elements of bebop and funk in their music, so I advise you to visit this page.
Rebirth Brass Band
A legend on the New Orleans brass combos scene, second only to the Dirty Dozen, the RBB was founded in 1983 by a bunch of school mates from the Tremé district of New Orleans lead by Phillip "Tuba Love" Frazier, his brother bass drum player Keith Frazier and trumpeter Kermit Ruffins. As can be guessed from their name, they wanted to reanimate the New Orleans brass band tradition : the marching bands performing at funerals and “second line” parades.
Originally baptized Rebirth Jazz Band, the group renamed itself Rebirth Brass Band after the release in 1984 by Arhoolie Records of their first LP, recorded live during two nights at The Greasy Lounge in New Orleans a few months earlier. The LP was re-issued on CD in 1997 by the same label, but still under their original name. Later, become famous, the band is most of the time referred to as just “Rebirth”.
About this album, ambitiously titled Here to Stay (1984), and for videos of the RBB, read my review here.
The title of this first was a premonitory wish, almost forty years after their (re)birth, and more than twenty studio albums later, the RBB are still around, despite changes in the line-up. The first important one was the departure of Kermit Ruffins who refused to accompany the band for a series of concerts in Africa in 1992. The latest is indeed the most important : from 2019, founding member Phillip "Tuba Phil" Frazier and Derrick Tabb, the snare-drummer since 1996, stopped playing regularly with the band.
Their album We Come to Party (1997) was rightly titled : it sounds like a real live second line parade, a jubilant “organized mess” recreated in studio, and enhanced by a great idea : use congas percussion, which brings an African dimension to the titles, going back to the Congo Square era. On the second line gospel medley “Glory, Glory”/“Jesus On The Mainline” the result is outstanding. This is a constant feature that continued on their following recordings and live performances.
The album features revisited covers of Stevie Wonder's “Don't U Wish”, Michael Jackson's “Liberian Girl” and Marvin Gaye's “Let's Get It On”, and one notices Derrick Tabb's brother, the “Prince of Tremé”, trombonist Glen David Andrews in the band.
Almost thirty years after their debut album, the RBB remained probably the most appealing New Orleans brass band, and if age doesn't seem to have altered in any way their energy, it has certainly helped improve their impeccable musicianship. They sound incredibly tight for a band including about a demi-dozen players.
So it seems on Rebirth of New Orleans (2011) and Move Your Body (2014), clearly devoted to partying and dancing : the Rebirth machine is rolling full steam ahead through the titles, and though the machine is big, it runs with such mechanical precision and smoothness that their music sounds incredibly light. The long medley “What Are We Gonna Do?”/”Banner Man”, which closes Move Your Body, is a 7-minute moment of pure pleasure !
Globally, the RBB stays quite attached to traditional second line style, incorporating gospel like the already mentioned excellent jazz version of “Glory, Glory”/”Jesus On The Mainline” on We Come To Party) or “Lord, Lord, Lord, You've Sure Been Good to Me” on Move Your Body, funk, Latin rhythms (the appealing “Shrimp and Gumbo” on Rebirth of New Orleans) or even reggae. But contrary to their younger challengers, like the Hot 8 Brass Band, the don't venture much into hip-hop/rap.
Another iconic group in New Orleans, the Hot 8 masters the art of turning any song they cover into an irresistibly rejoicing second line celebration. This was the case with their first hit, a brass version of Marvin Gaye's “Sexual Healing” on their first album, Rock With The Hot 8, released in 2005 on Louisiana Red Hot Records, that also included a revisit of Snoop Dogg's "What's My Name" as an opener, as well as a classic of the New Orleans second line repertoire, “Fly Away”.
Their version of “Sexual Healing” was immediately remixed by some DJ and the remix, heavily played by radios, focused attention on the band. It also drew attention of the British label Tru Thoughts that signed them and reissued the album in 2007.
The other exposure that helped them reach a wide notoriety was their prominent appearance in Spike Lee's 2006 documentary “When the Levees Broke : A Requiem in Four Acts” (and later, in 2010, in his sequel, “If God Is Willing and the Creek Don't Rise”).
Formed in 1995 by the late sousaphone player Bennie Pete who successfully merged the best players from two school groups, the Looney Tunes and the High Steppers brass bands, the Hot 8 included saxophonist Wendell "Cliff" Stewart along a huge trombone section (Jerome "Baybay" Jones, Keith "Wolf" Anderson, Jerreau "Cousin" Fournett, Demond "Bart" Dorsey and Joseph "Shotgun Joe" Williams), four trumpet players (Terrell "Burger" Batiste, Alvarez "B.I.G. AL" Huntley, Raymond "Dr. Rackle" Williams and Jacob Johnson). Dinerral "Dick" Shavers was on snare drum, and Harry "Swamp Thang" Cook on bass drum.
As usual with this kind of large bands, the lineup changed often but always around its four core founding members until Bennie Pete's death in 2021. The band can feature as many as ten members at times. The fluctuation in the line-up was also due to a particularly tragic history marked by the death of five members, all under 25, due to urban violence for three of them.
17-year-old trumpet player Jacob Johnson was shot at his home in 1996. In 2004 trombonist Demond Dorsey died from a heart attack, while his fellow trombone player Joseph "Shotgun Joe" Williams was shot dead by police in controversial circumstances. Drummer Dinerral "Dick" Shavers was also shot dead while driving in 2006. And Bennie Pete died in 2021 from complications from sarcoidosis and Covid-19.
Not talking about trumpeter Terrell “Burger” Batiste who lost both his legs after being hit by a car while fixing a blowout by the side of the highway in 2006.
Despite this too long list of tragedies, the band managed to keep his energy and inspiration, becoming one of the most popular brass bands in their native Crescent City.
After guesting on the Blind Boys of Alabama 2008 album “Down in New Orleans”, they released their second studio album, The Life and Times of the Hot 8 Brass Band, in 2012. Their third, Tombstone, mostly dedicated to former band members and other departed friends and musicians, followed quickly in 2013.
The tall "Trombone Shorty" parading with The Hot 8 |
The Life and Times… is more refined than their debut opus but still exhales a comparable live atmosphere. Hip-hop and rap start to take more space in their compositions. The album features a revisit of the Rebirth Brass Band's "Let Me Do My Thing", and two covers of underground British bands : "Bingo Bango", with a slight Latin feel, from the British house music combo Basement Jaxx's, and "Ghost Town", of the 1970's ska revival and new wave band The Specials.
Takashi Matsumura |
Both feature guests like trumpet blower and rapper Shamarr Allen, trombonists Dwaynne Finny and saxophonist Clarence Slaughter. Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews appears on “Fine Tuner”, and saxophonist John Gilbert, on “Steaming Blues”, “Can't Hide From The Truth” and “War Time”. On guitar Takashi Matsumura plays on “Fine Tuner” and “Can't Hide From The Truth”.
The arrangements of Tombstone were finalized during the same sessions as Life and Times…, but innovate with the reinforcing presence of Takashi Matsumura on guitar.
If the lyrics, prominently rap, have a basically somber mourning mood, musically the album is highly exciting, much more second than “first” line. Matsumura's guitar is bringing a funk counterpoint to the rich horns parts.
The songs do not deal only with late murdered members of Hot 8, but extend to outside friends as Milwaukee Fat aka Kerwin James from the New Birth Brass Band, or Eldridge Andrews from the Lil' Rascals band.
In 2015, the band celebrated their twentieth anniversary with Vicennial : 20 Years Of The Hot 8 Brass Band, followed by On the Spot in 2017, and by the 5-title EP Take Cover in 2019, all on Tru Thoughts. The South-African label Home Grown Distribution released a Live at Jazz Fest 2011, and the Illinois-based MunckMix, Live at Jazzfest 2012 & 2013.
Mixing jazz, soul, R'n'B, funk and hip-hop (or its local variant, “bounce”), with multi-voice vocals, The Hot 8 are notable for the front role of the sousaphone, often trumpeting out like an upset elephant. The band is also a favorite of remix DJs.
Milton Batiste & Alton Carson with the Magnificent Sevenths
Not really the same kind of brass band as the previous ones, but this Best Of New Orleans Bourbon Street Jazz : After Dark I chose to review here, is as enjoyable in its own style.
Anchored in traditional Dixie jazz (with banjo) but still soaked in vintage second line tradition, this opus recorded in 1994 features jazz singer Alton Carson, a kind of legend on Bourbon Street, paired with famous trumpet player Milton Batiste, accompanied by the Magnificent Sevenths band.
The two men recorded several albums together. The one mentioned here is one of them. It features mainly standards of New Orleans jazz like “When My Dreamboat Comes Home”, “China Boy”, “On The Sunny Side Of The Street”, “After You've Gone”, “Who's Sorry Now”, “You Are My Sunshine”, “Glory Of Love”, added with the exciting “Funky New Second Line” or “C. C. Rider”.
Alton "Big Al" Carson |
The two men recorded several albums together. The one mentioned here is one of them. It features mainly standards of New Orleans jazz like “When My Dreamboat Comes Home”, “China Boy”, “On The Sunny Side Of The Street”, “After You've Gone”, “Who's Sorry Now”, “You Are My Sunshine”, “Glory Of Love”, added with the exciting “Funky New Second Line” or “C. C. Rider”.
Milton Batiste |
The band, lead by Batiste, is flawless, and Carson reveals an appealing singer with a voice sometimes approaching Armstrong.
Despite a long search, I couldn't dig up any serious information about those Magnificent Sevenths, except the line-up mentioned on the album's cover : Elliot Callier on alto sax, Fredric Kemp & Ernest Watson on tenor sax, Wendell Eugene on trombone, Rickie Monie on piano, John Chaffe on banjo, Irving Charles on bass and Alvin Jacques on drums. Not seven but eight !
Much better known are Alton Carson aka “Big Al” Carson (1953-2020) and Milton Batiste (1934-2001).
Originally a sousaphonist, Carson played in an impressive number of New Orleans brass bands : Doc Paulin's, Tremé, Olympia, Eagles, Young Tuxedo, Camelia (with which he discovered Europe when the band was invited to the Swiss Festival of Ascona in 1974), and finally Spirit of New Orleans.
Meanwhile he had learned how to sing. Successfully it seems because in the 1980's he and his band, Rare Connexion, were hired to perform every Saturday night at the Fourth Edition club in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans. They stayed there for 13 years !
In the mid-1990's he took a regular tenure at the Funky Pirate on Bourbon Street with his new band, The Blues Masters. He stayed there for some 20 years, becoming a legendary figure of Bourbon Street, while multiplying collaborations and recordings with many musicians, among whom Milton Batiste that he probably met when both played with the Olympia Brass Band of Harold Dejan (1909-2002).
Milton Batiste when he was leading the Olympia Brass Band |
Prior to that, he had worked with Professor Longhair, Little Richard (very shortly), Eddie Bo, Clarence "Frogman" Henry, Smiley Lewis and Big Joe Turner, and recorded with Champion Jack Dupree and Guitar Slim, Jr.
He was also a member (some sources say the Chief) of the Flaming Arrows Mardi Gras Indians tribe, with whom he recorded Here Come The Indians Now! in 1997. And formed the Young Olympians to encourage funk-oriented youngsters towards parade jazz music, starting the Dubat Records label to record new bands.
Among his most notable participations are two historical recordings devoted to jazz funerals, a unique ceremony from New Orleans. On the Mardi Gras Records 1991 album Authentic New Orleans Jazz Funeral with the Magnificent Seventh’s Brass Band, featuring Carson on tuba, Batiste is narrating the different parts of the ceremony : the wake service made of gospel tunes, the funeral procession itself (the dirge) when the crowd accompanies the casket en route to the final resting place, and the joyful sendoff (second line) after the priest has cut the soul loose from the body.
In 1998, on the CD and DVD New Orleans Jazz Funerals… From the Inside, he did the same narrating thing, this time with the Olympia Brass Band that again played the different parts that compose this specific New Orleans tradition, interspersed with commentaries from Batiste shedding light on the ceremony.
Rightfully, when Batiste passed away in 2001, he was honored with one of the biggest New Orleans jazz funerals in modern times.
Mardi Brass Band
This excellent brass band New Orleans style is… from France ! They can compare shamelessly with many of their Big Easy counterparts.
(The MBB must not be mistaken with the Mardi Gro Brass Band from Lyon, France, or with the German Mardi Gras Brass Band formed in 1992 and renamed Mardi Gras.BB in 1999.)
Second-lining in Paris |
In 2001, Didier Marty returned from New Orleans and formed a brass band to celebrate Mardi Gras in Paris like over there. This was the birth of the Mardi Brass Band which performs in parades, and in some of the most renowned French festivals as “Jazz à la Villette” or “Jazz à Vienne”. Described by the press as a “groove machine”, it is part of the new generation of brass bands, heavily fueled with funk.
In parade or on stage, as illustrated by their muscular 2003 opus Brass Pride... Live, they revisit famous New Orleans Mardi Gras tunes but also adapt to the brass band format material from kings of funk as James Brown and the likes. Their music also often takes on Caribbean colors, and leaves an important part to improvisation, revealing exceptional instrumentalists in the process.
A truly popular show, which lives and feeds on collective enthusiasm, and with whom the expression “bon temps rouler” takes on its full meaning.
Funky Butt Brass Band
Not from New Orleans either, but from St. Louis, Missouri, the Funky Butt Brass Band is more a funky R'n'B and Soul sextet with a solid horn section than a real brass band in the Crescent City meaning of the word.
Formed in 2008 by six New Orleans brass band fans, Funky Butt as the name indicates, is resolutely oriented towards funk, mixing as they say “Minneapolis funk, Southern rock, Memphis soul, Chicago blues and St. Louis R&B…” and some hip-hop should they add.
Their strong funk flavor is clearly illustrated by the presence of a guitarist, Tim Halpin. Next to him are Aaron Chandler (trombone & vocals), Adam Hucke (trumpet, piano & vocals), Ben Reece (saxophone & vocals), Matt Brinkmann (sousaphone) and Ron Sikes (drums & percussion).
And for their 2014 album Sugar Sugar Whomp Whomp, a fairly enjoyable eclectic mix of funk, rock, soul… and second line jazz, like the New Orleans classic “I'll Fly Away” that concludes the album in the best possible manner, they invited guests like whom Dave Grelle and Bob Lohr on keyboards, Tom Martin on accordion and Thayne Bradford on fiddle, Cody Henry on trombone, Brian Casserly on trumpet, and seven backing vocalists...
Funk has the best part, fueling most of the tracks, more particularly the jazzy instrumental title track “Sugar Sugar Whomp Whomp”, the hip-hopish “Funk In The Trunk”, the exciting “Dirty Up”.
The band also delivers “Release Me”, a soul title quite in the manner of Otis Redding, the rock'n'roll “Orange Crush”, as well as the hybrid Americana “River Despair”.
Half of the album is devoted to New Orleans music with “Yours Truly”, “Tipitina”, “Down Broadway To The Oyster Bar”, “South Side Swamp”, and the jazz throw-back “Saint Lou Bliss”.
Even if the Funky Butts are not a pure brass band as those reviewed above, their album is rather pleasant to hear. ■
Audio Of Interest
→ Hot 8 Brass Band - "Rock With The Hot 8" (2005, full album) : https://youtu.be/33rXFbHZN10
→ The Magnificent Sevenths with Milton Batiste : “Authentic New Orleans Jazz Funeral” : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_l43SqcdIpQAQqMga0lMBRV-lCQeBpf_lc
→ Funky Butt Brass Band : “Sugar Sugar Whomp Whomp” (feat. Dave Grelle), full album : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lGiIYxovuUjQRWe-jyrbJLAq4_fDYfjnI
Videos
■ The videos of The Dirty Dozen Brass Band are in Chapter III.
■ Those concerning Rebirth Brass Band are over there.
► “20 Years In The Making”, short documentary from Tru Thoughts Records : https://youtu.be/1I4oYkETD6E
► Document : Jacob Johnson jazz funeral (with the Hot 8 Brass Band and the Calliope High Steppers), Dec 1996 : https://youtu.be/OprSGzqvpc8
→ Pickathon Pumphouse Sessions, Portland, OR, 2012 : https://youtu.be/HJxyqFisFdY
→ Official video, filmed in the streets of Brighton, UK, 2015 : https://youtu.be/ZsDUXo5TcZY
► “Bingo Bango” filmed on tour in the streets of Dublin, Ireland, 2011 : https://youtu.be/6-507JG8m4w
► Winter Park Jazz Festival, CO, 2011 : https://youtu.be/TL6lknWU098
► “New Orleans (After The City)”, Louisiana Music Factory, New Orleans, 2012 : https://youtu.be/_vPgiLSlDWk
► The Saint, Asbury Park, NJ, 2013 : https://youtu.be/XtMw_qYmbXo
► “We Are One”, Congo Square Rhythms Festival 2015 : https://youtu.be/5Sew0ALI-eI
► Impromptu street performance, Brighton, UK, 2015 : https://youtu.be/0wwMvtSDlpI
► Impromptu street performance, Brighton, UK, 2015 : https://youtu.be/0wwMvtSDlpI
→ “Rastafunk” : https://youtu.be/d5Ps1l-ST3E
► French Quarter Festival, New Orleans, 2016 : https://youtu.be/fWHE4urDkKg
► Tremé 7th Ward Festival, New Orleans, 2016 : https://youtu.be/H0KYFiAOb-0
► “Let Me Do My Thing”, Rush Festival, Rouen, France, 2017 : https://youtu.be/GpiX69P9aYc
► WWOZ radio, New Orleans, 2019 : https://youtu.be/mebRIXF4UUY
► Live in the KEXP studio, Seattle, WA, 2020 : https://youtu.be/U770aWmkTzE?t=26
► New Orleans Jazz Museum, 2021 : https://youtu.be/H89gfZdbxZk
► The Funky Uncle, New Orleans, 2021 : https://youtu.be/GtMtAtNr5iE?t=103
Milton Batiste & Alton Carson with the Magnificent Seventh's (Brass) Band
● Milton Batiste
► Milton Batiste (trumpet) and Harold Dejan (alto sax), Jazz Preservation Hall, New Orleans, 1990 (unfortunately cut before the end) : https://youtu.be/A1_r4qWAGQM
● Alton "Big Al" Carson
► “Home Grown, New Orleans”, a 4-part documentary on "Big Al" Carson, 2009 :
→ Pt 1 : https://youtu.be/L3IrMFXu9qo
→ Pt 2 : https://youtu.be/n0iGyhP_oKY
→ Pt 3 : https://youtu.be/N73dwkzm0Vg
→ Pt 4 : https://youtu.be/XqgIS3WmO_0
"Big Al" & his Blues Masters |
► Louisiana Music Factory, New Orleans, 2010 : https://youtu.be/Y3Hcmh-av7Y
► The Funky Pirate, New Orleans, 2011 : https://youtu.be/sPzaFMMu6Bk
► With The Blues Masters, New Orleans Jazz Fest, 2013 :
→ https://youtu.be/sybt5W1b04A
→ “The Thrill is Gone” : https://youtu.be/C00JmxMYv1U
► New Orleans Jazz Fest, 2015 :
→ “Let's Stay Together” : https://youtu.be/3vthe-gjmke
→ “Before You Use Me Up” : https://youtu.be/KER8MQ65_uA
► Live from WWOZ, New Orleans, 2018 : https://youtu.be/6GRezzzrIXY
Mardi Brass Band
► "Funky Drummer" (James Brown), 2010 : https://youtu.be/VcN3bhzqMzc
► Petit Journal Montparnasse, Paris, France, 2013 :
→ “Didn't He Ramble” : https://youtu.be/LZPi2y2SAHs
→ “There It Is”/“The Payback” (James Brown) : https://youtu.be/q9IEyO9vobk
► “Ham” (Pee Wee Ellis), Lionel Hampton Jazz Club, Méridien Hotel, Paris, France, 2007 : https://youtu.be/WAg5XYOlaK8
Funky Butt Brass Band
► "Funky Good Time”/”Try Me", KDHX James Brown Tribute, St. Louis, MO, 2010 : https://youtu.be/LFe_n_9VNq4
► “Saint James Infirmary”, Blues City Deli, St. Louis, MO, 2011 : https://youtu.be/c-njeSCNylU
► “Do Whatcha Wanna”, Tres Hombres Mexican Bar & Grill, 2011 : https://youtu.be/Nle7WyM6O8E
► Second line at the Midwest Mayhem Fest., 2012 : https://youtu.be/NFYHLfWrDdk
► “Zydeco Boogaloo” with Chubby Carrier, Casa Loma, St. Louis, MO, 2012 : https://youtu.be/acYHVDkUnxE
► Maryland Heights, MO, 2013 : https://youtu.be/P7aI1KkI2Ig
► “West LA Fadeaway” (Grateful Dead), Benton Park, St. Louis, MO, 2014 : https://youtu.be/r_azZqInHXU
► BB's Jazz Blues & Soups, St. Louis, MO, 2014 :
→ https://youtu.be/-GTPf0fmE5M
→ https://youtu.be/TdK_b0csVq8
► Mega Mix (Grateful Dead, Beatles, Prince), 2015 : https://youtu.be/vbMv4aR2_mo
► Knuckleheads Garage, Kansas City, MO, 2017 : https://youtu.be/WQ5v8hc2nYU?t=44
► Brasstravaganza, St. Louis, MO, 2018 :
→ Set 1 : https://youtu.be/MGyy4YvRhNk
→ Set 2 : https://youtu.be/xlLK_SxX8y0
► The Cherokee Street Festival Brass Band Blowout, St. Louis, MO, 2022 : https://youtu.be/J-sGZX6gpJ4
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