Dirty Dozen Brass Band

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band is a New Orleans, Louisiana brass band. The ensemble was established in 1977 by Benny Jones together with members of the Tornado Brass Band, and went on to become the best known of the New Orleans-style brass bands. Image File history File links Dirty_Dozen_Brass. ... Image File history File links Dirty_Dozen_Brass. ... Nickname: The Big Easy Motto: Official website: http://www. ... The Lochgelly Band, a Scottish colliery band, circa 1890 A brass band is a musical group consisting mostly of brass instruments, often with a percussion section. ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ... The Hurricane Brass Band was a brass band from New Orleans, Louisiana. ...

Beginnings

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band ultimately grew out of the youth music program established by Danny Barker at New Orleans' Fairview Baptist Church. In 1972 Barker started the Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band, with the goal of providing young people with a positive outlet for their energies; the band achieved considereable local popularity and transformed itself a professional outfit led by trumpeter Leroy Jones and known as the Hurricane Brass Band. By 1976, however, opportunities for brass bands were drying up; Jones left the group to play mainstream jazz and, after a brief period as the Tornado Brass Band, the group fell apart. Danny Barker (1909 - 1994) was a jazz guitarist and banjoist from New Orleans, Louisiana. ... The Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band, also known as the Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band, was a group of young musicians organized in 1970 by banjo- and guitar-player Danny Barker. ... The trumpet is the highest brass instrument in register other than the cornet, its above the horn, trombone, euphonium, and tuba. ... Leroy Jones is a jazz trumpeter from New Orleans, Louisiana. ... The Hurricane Brass Band was a brass band from New Orleans, Louisiana. ...

Nevertheless, a few of the musicians from the Tornado band—trumpeter Gregory Davis, sousaphonist Kirk Joseph, trombonist Charles Joseph, and saxophonist Kevin Harris–continued to rehearse together into 1977, and they were joined by Ephram Towns and Roger Lewis on saxophone and Benny Jones and Jenell Marshall on drums. By this point the popularity of brass band music in New Orleans was at a low ebb, and paying gigs were rare, a circumstance which influenced the early development of the band. As Davis describes it, Sousaphone The sousaphone is a musical instrument that is a substitute for the tuba when used in a marching band. ... Kirk Joseph (b. ... A lip-reed aerophone with a predominantly cylindrical bore, the trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. ... Charles Joseph is a jazz trombone player from New Orleans, Louisiana. ... Saxophones of different sizes play in different registers. ...

In the beginning, there was a lot of rehearsal going on, ... [and] we started to develop a repetoire. ... We were just rehearsing, and we were interested in learning the chord progressions and the melodies. ... We were all free to bring in whatever we wanted to rehearsal. We weren't thinking about getting gigs.

This sense of freedom allowed the band to incorporate bebop tunes and jazz standards into their repetoire, as well as lighthearted pieces like the Flintstones theme song. Bebop or bop is a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos and improvisation based on harmonic structure rather than melody. ... Jazz master Louis Armstrong remains one of the most loved and best known of all jazz musicians. ... The cast of The Flintstones, from left to right: Betty, Barney, Fred, Wilma and Dino. ...

When Benny Jones, who was active in the social and pleasure club scene, was asked to get a band together for a parade he would draw from this rehearsal group; before long, Gregory Davis assumed leadership of the band. "I thought it would be better to use the same people as often as I could," he explains. "That helped to keep it tight." The band initially called themselves the Original Sixth Ward Dirty Dozen, a name designed to show their stong connection to the Treme neighborhood and the local social club scene, as represented by the Dirty Dozen Social and Pleasure Club. Treme (historically sometimes called Tremé or Faubourg Tremé) is a neighborhood in the downtown portion the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. ...

The band began playing regular Thursday night gig's at a Seventh Ward club called Daryl's, and later added a regular spot at the Glasshouse, which lasted "about seven or eight years". The Daryl's performances caught the attention of Jerry Brock, a radio broadcaster and founder of the brand new station WWOZ. Brock describes his initial reaction to the band: WWOZ is a non-profit community-supported radio station in New Orleans, Louisiana broadcasting at 90. ...

I'll never forget the first time I walked in there. ... The people were so exuberant—the floor was covered with people, rolling on the floor! ... This is what the Fairview band and the Hurricane Brass Band had been leading up to—the Dirty Dozen had renewed this music to the New Orleans community. The people were going wild. Going to Daryl's became the weekly ritual.

Popularity

In 1980, Jerry Brock made the first professional recording of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, which he played "constantly" on WWOZ. He also prepared a press kit for the group and, in his words, "helped them to present themselves professionally". In 1982 he arranged a concert for them at a club called Tipitina's, which was the first time they had played at a "white club" in New Orleans. 1982 also saw the band's first international appearance, when Kidd Jordan recommended the band to the organizers of the Groningen Festival in Holland. Edward Kidd Jordan is a jazz saxophonist and music educator from New Orleans, Louisiana. ...

The band's popularity began to take off in 1984. Promoter George Wein booked them on a tour of southern Europe, and when they returned to the United States they secured engagements at two clubs in New York, Tramp's and the Village Gate, where their original short bookings were ultimately extended to six weeks. After a week at home in New Orleans the band travelled to California for four weeks, and before the year was out made three more trips to Europe. 1984 also saw the recording and release of the band's first album, My Feet Can't Fail Me Now, on the Concord Jazz label. Gregory Davis assesses the band's popularity at the time: George Wein. ... Nickname: The Big Apple Motto: Official website: City of New York Location Location in the state of New York Government Counties (Boroughs) Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Geographical characteristics Area Total 468. ... Concord Records is a well-known jazz record label. ...

Outside Louisiana, support was in pockets. It was OK in California, but our widest support was in Europe. ... There were many more festivals and clubs that featured jazz, and a high level of enthusiasm. We got the same sort of reception in Japan.

In 1986 the band's set at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland was recorded and released as Mardi Gras at Montreux on Rounder Records. The album and the band's touring successes attracted major-label attention, and in 1987 the band signed a contract with Columbia. Their Columbia debut, 1987's Voodoo, featured guest appearances by Dr. John, Dizzy Gillespie and Branford Marsalis. This introduced a trend for the group, and future recordings saw them joined by a variety of special guests including Elvis Costello, DJ Logic, Norah Jones, and the man who started it all, Danny Barker. The group has also toured and recorded with jam band Widespread Panic. Poster designed by Keith Haring The Montreux Jazz Festival is the best-known music festival in Switzerland. ... Montreux is a resort town in the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland, on Lake Geneva with a population of 22,897. ... Rounder Records is a Cambridge, Massachusetts based independent record label founded in 1970 by Ken Irwin, Bill Nowlin, and Marian Leighton-Levy, while all three were still university students. ... Dr. John album cover Dr. John, born Malcolm Rebennack (born November 21, 1940 in New Orleans, Louisiana) is a colorful pianist, singer, and songwriter, whose music spans, and often combines, blues, boogie woogie, and rock and roll. ... Dizzy Gillespie photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1955 John Birks Dizzy Gillespie (October 21, 1917 - January 6, 1993) was born in Cheraw, South Carolina. ... Branford Marsalis (born August 26, 1960) is an American jazz saxophonist. ... Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus, aka Elvis Costello. ... DJ Logic (born Jason Kibler) is a turntablist active primariy in jazz and the with so-called jam bands. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Danny Barker (1909 - 1994) was a jazz guitarist and banjoist from New Orleans, Louisiana. ... The term jam band is commonly used to describe psychedelic rock-influenced bands whose concerts largely consist of bands reinterpreting their songs as springboards into extended improvisational pieces of music. ... Widespread Panic is a southern rock band from Athens, Georgia. ...

In 1998, after a five-year hiatus from recording, the band switched labels to release Ears To the Wall on Mammoth Records. They followed it up in 1999 with Buck Jump which was produced by John Medeski of Medeski, Martin and Wood (Medeski also played Hammond B3 on the album). Their next album, 2002's Medicated Magic, appeared on Ropeadope Records, as did their most recent studio release, Funeral for a Friend, which appeared in 2004. Funeral for a Friend represents something of a return to the band's roots: it is a documentation of a New Orleans "funeral with music", the original environment of the brass band form. They appear on the 2005 benefit album A Celebration of New Orleans Music to Benefit MusiCares Hurricane Relief 2005, with the song "Mardi Gras In New Orleans". Founded in 1989 in Carborro, NC, Mammoth Records was one of the premiere independent record labels of the 1990s. ... John Medeski is a pianist and composer. ... ... A factory model of the Hammond B3 The Hammond B3 organ is a tone wheel organ made by the Hammond-factory. ... Jazz funeral is a unique American funeral tradition which occurs in New Orleans. ... A Celebration of New Orleans Music to Benefit MusiCares Hurricane Relief 2005 is a benefit album, with tracks from the vault by an array of New Orleans artists. ...

Influence

From the beginning, the music of the Dirty Dozen was a departure from the traditional New Orleans brass band sound, and as the band's popularity increased the distance between them and more traditional groups only grew. When Kirk and Charles Joseph left the band suddenly in 1991, citing the pressures of the group's demanding touring schedule, Davis was forced to replace Kirk Joseph not with another sousaphonist but with an electric bass player. Similarly, in 1994 drummers Lionel Batiste (who had replaced Benny Jones on bass drum some years earlier) and Jenell Marshall left the group; Davis was unable to find a pair of drummers who met his expectations, and instead hired a single musician to play drum kit. The subsequent addition of a keyboard player and guitarist removed the band still further from its street band roots. Another factor in the group's unique sound is that they often play without a trombonist, prefering to fill in the low end of the horn section with Roger Lewis's baritone saxophone. Finally, throughout the band's history they relied on written arrangements to a far greater extent than do most other New Orleans brass bands. Fender Precision Bass Bass Guitar is a commonly spoken phrase used to refer to the electric bass and horizontal acoustic basses, a stringed instrument similar in design to the electric guitar, but larger in size, commonly fretted and sometimes fretless and with a lower range. ... Uncle Lionel Batiste is a musician from New Orleans, Louisiana. ... A bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. ... A drum kit (or drum set or trap set - the latter an old-fashioned term) is a collection of drums, cymbals and other percussion instruments arranged for convenient playing by a sole percussionist (drummer), usually for jazz, rock, or other types of contemporary music. ... An electric guitar is a type of guitar with a solid or semi-solid body that utilizes electronic pickups to convert the vibration of the steel-cored strings into electrical current. ... Baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone, one of the larger members of the saxophone family, was invented by Adolphe Sax. ...

Despite the Dirty Dozen's uniqueness, however, the band's success inspired a resurgence of New Orleans' brass band music, both in the city and nationwide. The band was most influential in the 1980s, when they demonstrated by example that brass band music could be successful by moving beyond a type of music that risked stagnation as nothing more than a tourist attraction. Before the Dirty Dozen band was formed the Olympia Brass Band was already mixing R&B and jazz influences in with traditional tunes; the Dirty Dozen took this farther, and gave the trend worldwide visibility. Bands which followed in their wake did not all follow their more jazz oriented stage band approach—only the Soul Rebels have gone in that direction—but a wide variety of bands, from the Rebirth Brass Band to Wisconsin's Youngblood Brass Band have been influenced by them in other ways. Rebirth has the most direct connection with the Dirty Dozen: they got their start playing at Daryl's when the Dirty Dozen was on the road. Rhythm and blues (or R & B) is a musical marketing term introduced in the United States in the late 1940s by Billboard magazine. ... The Rebirth Brass Band is a New Orleans brass band. ... Official language(s) None Capital Madison Largest city Milwaukee Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 23rd 169,790 km² 420 km 500 km 17 42°30N to 47°3N 86°49W to 92°54W Population  - Total (2000)  - Density Ranked 18th 5,453,896 38. ... The Youngblood Brass Band The Youngblood Brass Band is a brass band from Madison, Wisconsin. ...

Discography

• 1984 - My Feet Can't Fail Me Now (Concord Jazz)
• 1986 - Live: Mardi Gras in Montreaux (Rounder)
• 1987 - Voodoo (Columbia) Featuring Dr. John, Dizzy Gillespie and Branford Marsalis
• 1989 - The New Orleans Album (Columbia) Featuring Danny Barker, Dave Bartholomew, Eddie Bo and Elvis Costello
• 1991 - Open Up: Watcha Gonna Do For the Rest of Your Life? (Columbia)
• 1993 - Jelly (Columbia)
• 1993 - This Is Jazz, Volume 30 (Sony)
• 1998 - Ears To the Wall (Mammoth)
• 1999 - Buck Jump (Mammoth) Featuring John Medeski
• 2002 - Medicated Magic (Ropeadope) Featuring John Bell, Dr. John, Olu Dara, Norah Jones, DJ Logic, and Robert Randolph
• 2003 - We Got Robbed: Live in New Orleans (Self-released)
• 2004 - Funeral For a Friend (Ropeadope)
• 2005 - This is the Dirty Dozen Brass Band (compilation, from Shout Factory)

The DIrty Dozen Brass Band has also recorded a pair of albums with Widespread Panic: See also: 1983 in music, other events of 1984, 1985 in music, 1980s in music and the list of years in music // Events January 27 - singer Michael Jacksons hair catches fire during the filming of a Pepsi commercial. ... See also: 1985 in music, other events of 1986, 1987 in music, 1980s in music and the list of years in music // Events January 23 - The first induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee... Rounder Records is a Cambridge, Massachusetts based independent record label founded in 1970 by Ken Irwin, Bill Nowlin, and Marian Leighton-Levy, while all three were still university students. ... See also: 1986 in music, other events of 1987, 1988 in music, 1980s in music and the list of years in music // Events January 3 - Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. ... Dr. John album cover Dr. John, born Malcolm Rebennack (born November 21, 1940 in New Orleans, Louisiana) is a colorful pianist, singer, and songwriter, whose music spans, and often combines, blues, boogie woogie, and rock and roll. ... Dizzy Gillespie photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1955 John Birks Dizzy Gillespie (October 21, 1917 - January 6, 1993) was born in Cheraw, South Carolina. ... Branford Marsalis (born August 26, 1960) is an American jazz saxophonist. ... See also: 1988 in music, other events of 1989, 1990 in music, 1980s in music and the list of years in music if (window. ... Danny Barker (1909 - 1994) was a jazz guitarist and banjoist from New Orleans, Louisiana. ... Dave Bartholomew is a musician, bandleader, composer, and arranger, prominent in the music of New Orleans, Louisiana throughout the second half of the 20th century. ... Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus, aka Elvis Costello. ... See also: 1990 in music, other events of 1991, 1992 in music, 1990s in music and the list of years in music // Events 1991 was the year that grunge music made its popular breakthrough. ... See also: 1992 in music, other events of 1993, 1994 in music, 1990s in music and the list of years in music // Events January 8 - The U.S. Postal service issues an Elvis Presley stamp. ... See also: 1992 in music, other events of 1993, 1994 in music, 1990s in music and the list of years in music // Events January 8 - The U.S. Postal service issues an Elvis Presley stamp. ... Sony Records is a record label courtesy of Columbia; Epic; and American Recordings. ... See also: 1997 in music, other events of 1998, 1999 in music, 1990s in music and the list of years in music // Events February 15 - Sir Edward Elgars unfinished third symphony, completed by Anthony Payne is performed for the first time at the Royal Festival Hall. ... Founded in 1989 in Carborro, NC, Mammoth Records was one of the premiere independent record labels of the 1990s. ... See also: 1998 in music, 1999 in British music, other events of 1999, 2000 in music, 1990s in music and the list of years in music // Events January 7 After eight years of marriage, Rod Stewart and supermodel wife Rachel Hunter announce their separation. ... John Medeski is a pianist and composer. ... // Events 2002 was marked by significant trends in Rock Music. ... Widespread Panic is a southern rock band from Athens, Georgia. ... Dr. John album cover Dr. John, born Malcolm Rebennack (born November 21, 1940 in New Orleans, Louisiana) is a colorful pianist, singer, and songwriter, whose music spans, and often combines, blues, boogie woogie, and rock and roll. ... Olu Dara, born Charles Jones III in Louisville, Mississippi in 1941, is an American trumpeter, cornetist, guitarist and singer. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... DJ Logic (born Jason Kibler) is a turntablist active primariy in jazz and the with so-called jam bands. ... Robert Randolph was the guitarist for Robert Randolph & the Family Band. ... // Events January - following an investigation by The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and London detectives, police raids in England and the Netherlands recover nearly 500 original Beatles studio tapes, recorded during the Let It Be sessions. ... See also: 2004 in music (UK) other events of 2004 list of years in music 2000s in music // Events January 1 - Vienna New Years Concert by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in Vienna, conducted by Riccardo Muti January 1 - Kurt Nilsen wins World Idol January 3 - Britney Spears marries Jason... See also: 2005 in music (UK) 2005 in music (Switzerland) Other events of 2005 List of years in music 2000s in music // Events January 22 - Tsunami Relief concert held at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales - the largest live music event in the UK since the Live Aid concert of 1985. ... Widespread Panic is a southern rock band from Athens, Georgia. ...

• 2000 - Another Joyous Occasion
• 2004 - Night of Joy

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References

• Burns, Mick. Keeping the Beat On the Street: The New Orleans Brass Band Renaissance. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-8071-3048-6
• Press Kit from Ropeadope Records
• MusicWeb Encyclopedia of Popular Music