[Dixielandjazz] Jazz Funerals

[Elazar Brandt]

An interesting thread. Here's a twist...

My group here in Jerusalem has had some discussion of jazz funerals, partly
academic because that's the background of some of the music, and partly because
one or another of us or our customers fleetingly mentioned that we might want to
go out that way when the time comes.

The problem: Jewish mourners are forbidden -- not sure if it's by custom or
actual religious law -- to listen to music for up to a year after the death of a
loved one. The year applies to immediate family. I believe there are shorter
periods like 1 week or 1 month for more distant relatives and friends. I know
active musicians who put down their axes for the full year, stopped coming to
any musical events, when a parent or sibling has passed on. I think arguably if
you make your living as a musician, you are allowed to play for your livelihood,
but not casually. (Now there are carefully reasoned and time-honored reasons for
this, so if you don't agree, at least respect it. It's not just a kill-joy
thing.)

My question to the list: Has anyone had experience with doing a jazz funeral for
a religious Jewish family? Based on the funerals I've been to in Jerusalem, I
think the sight of a band of any kind -- never mind a jazz band -- at a cemetery
would be inconceivable, even if not expressly forbidden. In Israel. I think all
the Jewish cemeteries are under the authority of Jewish religious law, so even
if the deceased or his family are not religious, doing it the old fashioned way
is the only option. This is probably not the case anywhere else in the world.

What we've done here in the past when a couple of our beloved folk musos have
passed on is to hold a memorial service a month after the death, in which
friends and colleagues play songs and tell stories that evoke memories of the
deceased. The boldest case I know of was a fellow I never met, but knew by
reputation. I went to a concert in which he was to be featured one night, only
to find that he had died of a heart attack earlier that day. He was emphatically
not religious, lived a raucous life and apparently died the same way. His family
and friends turned the concert into a celebration of his life on the very day he
died. This is someone who, if he wanted to do a jazz funeral parade, might have
gone for it. But that was not his style.

The best I can fathom for here in Israel would be to do a parade from somewhere
outside the synagogue, maybe a few blocks away, to somewhere near the cemetery.
I seriously doubt if a band would be permitted inside on either end.

Anyone have experience or know anything that might shed light on this question.
Maybe I'll be the first to plant the New Orleans tradition in Jerusalem -- not
too soon, I hope!

Elazar
Doctor Jazz Dixieland Band
Tekiya Trumpet/Brass Ensemble
Jerusalem, Israel
<www.israel.net/ministry-of-jazz>
Tel: +972-2-679-2537

P.S. I'm not worried about the song list. Some gospel tunes work, others don't,
for obvious reasons. But there is no shortage of appropriate songs.