[Dixielandjazz] Dirty Dozen Brass Band

[David Richoux]

Hi all,

my mail has been acting up today - I can get it but have trouble 
sending, but I should try to make a comment on this thread.

I have been enjoying the Dirty Dozen since I first heard them in the 
1980s. They were an amazing breath of fresh air on the New Orleans 
traditional brass band culture back then and they are still evolving!  
While they do keep most of the traditional band instrumentation they 
have always kicked it up several levels in energy, skill and 
inventiveness. Their roots are in early New Orleans jazz/brass band  
history but they also blend in beBop, R&B-funk, rock, (and later a 
touch of hip-hop and rap) into the gumbo.

I had a chance to interview the leaders of the group for my radio 
program in 1990 or so - they were very aware of the roots of their 
music but they also knew they were in very new territory. At that time  
the ReBirth Brass Band musicians were still mostly in high-school and 
learning a lot from the DDBB. There are now dozens of other groups 
forming up to play in that style, and not just in New Orleans - I have 
heard bands from such places as Wisconsin, Baltimore/DC, Japan and 
California that all were inspired by DDBB (and they are not all black 
musicians by a long shot.)

The DDBB are often a featured group at "New Orleans by the Bay" in 
Mountain View CA and I have had the wonderful experience of parading 
through the audience and ending up being on the same stage with them 
(in the Zenith Brass Band) playing a more traditional style New Orleans 
brass band - different songs, different styles but at the same time - 
jazzy cacophony and the audience loved it!

For some on this list DDBB is not OKOM, true, but they have certainly 
kept some of the tradition of early New Orleans music alive and exposed 
to a huge international audience. I think they are an important doorway 
leading both forward and back through the total history of jazz and I 
will keep on expecting great things from them.

Dave Richoux



On Friday, January 17, 2003, at 06:17  PM, Jim Denham wrote:
> The Dirty Dozen probably represent the future of "New Orleans"-style 
> jazz,
> combining  traditional marching-band exuberance with bebop solos. They 
> play
> everything from Morton to Monk, with a funky, marching-band beat. I 
> like them
> very much, though I've only ever heard them on record (and I have to 
> say that
> their more recent records have not been as good as their first - 
> amazing -
> Concorde album, in my humble opinion).
>
> My advice to Steve would be, simply: don't worry and do your own 
> thing! They
> represent one possible way forward for our music; you represent 
> another. Both
> are valid.
>
> Yours,
>  -
> Jim Denham
>
>
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