The Dirty Dozen Brass Band is an American brass band based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The ensemble was established in 1977, by Benny Jones and members of the Tornado Brass Band. The Dirty Dozen incorporated funk and bebop into the traditional New Orleans jazz style, and has since been a major influence on local music. In 2023, they won the Grammy Award for Best American Roots Performance.

","content","

\n\n

Beginnings

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band 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 to provide young people with a positive outlet for their energies. The band achieved considerable local popularity and transformed itself into a professional outfit led by trumpet player Leroy Jones and known as the Hurricane Brass Band. By 1976, 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.\n

A few of the musicians from the Tornado band—trumpeter Gregory Davis, sousaphone player Kirk Joseph, trombone player Charles Joseph, and saxophone player Kevin Harris–continued to rehearse together into 1977, and they were joined by Efrem Towns (trumpet player/lead singer), 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, but the band continued to rehearse and develop a repertoire.\n

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, which had named themselves The Original Sixth Ward Dirty Dozen, a name created to show their strong connection to the Tremé neighborhood and the local social club scene, as represented by the Dirty Dozen Social and Pleasure Club.\n

The band began playing regular gigs at the Seventh Ward club Daryl's, and at the Glasshouse, a bar in a black neighborhood of Uptown New Orleans. The performances at Daryl's caught the attention of Jerry Brock, co-founder of the radio station WWOZ.\n

Popularity

In 1980, Brock made the first professional recording of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, which he played frequently on WWOZ. In 1982, he arranged a concert at Tipitina's, which was the first time they had played at a \"white club\" in New Orleans.\n

In 1984, promoter George Wein booked the band on a tour of southern Europe. That was followed by dates in New York—at Tramp's and The Village Gate, and three more trips to Europe, where their original short bookings were extended to six weeks. Concord Jazz released of the band's first album, My Feet Can't Fail Me Now.\n

In 1986, the band's set at the Montreux Jazz Festival 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, 1989's Voodoo featured guest appearances by Dr. John, Dizzy Gillespie, and Branford Marsalis. Later recordings saw them joined by a variety of special guests including Elvis Costello, DJ Logic, Norah Jones, and Danny Barker. The group has also toured and recorded with jam band Widespread Panic, as well as spending almost all of 1995 as the opening act for The Black Crowes 'Amorica Or Bust' US Tour.\n

\n\n

In 1990, at the memorial service for Jim Henson, the band played a Dixieland jazz version of the \"When the Saints Go Marching In\" at the St. John's Cathedral in New York City. Through letters written prior to his passing, Henson requested that a Dixieland band play a rousing version of \"Saints\" at the conclusion of the memorial service. The performance was described by Life magazine as \"an epic and almost unbearably moving event\".\n

In 1998, the band released 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 & Wood. Their next album, 2002's Medicated Magic, appeared on Ropeadope Records, as did their subsequent studio release, Funeral for a Friend, which appeared in 2004. Funeral for a Friend is a documentation of a New Orleans \"funeral with music\", the original environment of the brass band form. They appeared on the 2005 benefit album A Celebration of New Orleans Music to Benefit MusiCares Hurricane Relief 2005, and on two tracks on Modest Mouse's album Good News for People Who Love Bad News. On August 29, 2006, the Dozen released What's Going On, their version of the 1971 Marvin Gaye album What's Going On as a response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina that struck New Orleans one year earlier.\n

The band appears in performance footage, and Gregory Davis is interviewed, in the 2005 documentary Make It Funky!, which presents a history of New Orleans music. In the film, the band performs \"My Feet Can't Fail Me Now\" with guests Irvin Mayfield and Troy Andrews.\n

Influence

The band's success inspired a resurgence of New Orleans' brass band music, in the city and nationwide. The band was most influential in the 1980s, when they demonstrated that brass band music could be successful; the Dirty Dozen gave it worldwide visibility.\n

Discography

\n\n

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band appears on:\n

\n\n

Awards and honors

Grammy Awards

\n\n

OffBeat's Best of The Beat Awards

\n\n

References

\n\n

External links

\n\n

Official website
Dirty Dozen Brass Band collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive
Press Kit from Ropeadope Records
MusicWeb Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Interview with Efrem Towns at About.com
Interview with Roger Lewis at TheWaster.com

","description","American brass band from New Orleans, Louisiana","url","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Dozen_Brass_Band","wikibase_item","Q488728","thumbnail",{"_476":482,"_478":483,"_480":484},"original_image",{"_476":477,"_478":479,"_480":481},"general_info",{"_460":461,"_52":462,"_463":464,"_465":466,"_467":468},"current_members",[474,475],[85],"record_labels",[472,473],"official_website","http://www.dirtydozenbrass.com/","active_years",{"_469":470,"_471":-5},"start","1977","end","Concord Jazz","Concord Records","Charles Joseph","Roger Lewis","source","https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/DirtyDozenBrassBand.jpg/3840px-DirtyDozenBrassBand.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","width",4032,"height",3024,"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/DirtyDozenBrassBand.jpg/330px-DirtyDozenBrassBand.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail",330,248,"20762",{"_25":493,"_42":494,"_44":495,"_46":496,"_48":497,"_50":-5,"_51":-5,"_52":498,"_54":499,"_56":500,"_58":501,"_60":61,"_62":502,"_64":503,"_66":504,"_68":-5,"_70":-5,"_72":-5,"_74":-5,"_76":-5,"_78":-5,"_80":-5,"_82":-5},{"_32":488},{"_34":489},[490,491],{"_25":244,"_27":39},{"_25":492,"_27":39},"213215",20762,"The Dirty Dozen Brass Band","the-dirty-dozen-brass-band","https://open.spotify.com/artist/6F6lawSnwGWWgdXFN7LXO7","https://i.scdn.co/image/ab6761610000e5eb49c83dc5436d05551b8e32f9",[],31,50545,[88],80434,609542,[85,87,344,84,155]]

Beginnings

Popularity

Influence

Discography

Awards and honors

Grammy Awards

OffBeat's Best of The Beat Awards

References

Further reading

External links

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band

Broadcast History