Login
Login

Dirty Dozen Brass Band

{{Short description|American brass band from New Orleans, Louisiana}}

{{Multiple issues|

{{More citations needed|date=December 2010}}

{{More footnotes needed|date=July 2021}}}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}}

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Dirty Dozen Brass Band

| image = DirtyDozenBrassBand.jpg

| caption = Dirty Dozen Brass Band in 2018

| image_size =

| landscape = yes

| alias =

| origin = New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.

| genre = Jazz, New Orleans R&B, Jazz fusion, Second Line, Funk, Soul, Jam Band

| years_active = 1977–present

| label = Concord Jazz, Rounder, Columbia, Mammoth, Ropeadope, Shout! Factory

| associated_acts = Modest Mouse, Widespread Panic

| website = [http://www.dirtydozenbrass.com/ www.dirtydozenbrass.com]

| current_members = Gregory Davis – trumpet, vocals
Roger Lewis – baritone, soprano sax, Vocals
Kirk Joseph – Sousaphone
Julian Addison – Drums, Vocals
Takeshi Shimmura – Guitar
Trevarri Huff-Boone - Tenor Sax/Vocals
Stephen Walker - Trombone/Vocals

| past_members = Keith Anderson – Trombone
Revert Andrews – Trombone
Lionel Batiste – Bass drum
Big Sam – Trombone
Jake Eckert – Guitar
Kevin Harris – Tenor saxophone
Terence Higgins – Drums
Benny Jones – Bass drum
Charles Joseph – Trombone
Richard Knox – Keyboard
Jenell Marshall – Snare drum
Julius McKee – Sousaphone
Jamie McLean – Guitar
TJ Norris – Trombone
Kyle Roussel – Keyboard
Efrem Towns – Trumpet, flugelhorn
Jermal Watson – Drums

}}

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band is an American brass band based in New Orleans, Louisiana.{{cite book|title=The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz|editor=Colin Larkin|publisher=Guinness Publishing|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-580-8|page=121}} 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.{{cite web |url=https://www.grammy.com/artists/the-dirty-dozen-brass-band/52267 |title=Artist: The Dirty Dozen Brass Band |author= |date=2023 |website=Grammy.com |publisher=Recording Academy |access-date=February 8, 2023}}

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

File:DirtyDozenBrassBand 20080831.jpg

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.

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.{{cite journal |author= |date=April 2005 |title=IAJE What's Going On |journal=Jazz Education Journal |location=Manhattan, Kansas |publisher=International Association of Jazz Educators |volume=37 |issue=5 |page=87 |issn=1540-2886 |id={{ProQuest|1370090}} }} In the film, the band performs "My Feet Can't Fail Me Now" with guests Irvin Mayfield and Troy Andrews.{{cite AV media |date=2005 |title=Make It Funky! |type=DVD |language=en |time= |location=Culver City, California |publisher=Sony Pictures Home Entertainment |id=11952 |isbn=9781404991583 |oclc=61207781}}

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.

Discography

{{div col}}

  • 1984 – My Feet Can't Fail Me Now (Concord Jazz)
  • 1986 – Live: Mardi Gras In Montreux (Rounder)
  • 1989 – Voodoo (Columbia)
  • 1990 – The New Orleans Album (Columbia)
  • 1991 – Open Up: Whatcha Gonna Do for the Rest of Your Life (Columbia)
  • 1993 – Jelly (Columbia)
  • 1996 – Ears to the Wall (Mammoth)
  • 1997 – This is Jazz (Columbia)
  • 1999 – Buck Jump (Mammoth)
  • 2002 – Medicated Magic (Ropeadope Records)
  • 2002 – Down and Dirty (Terminus Records)
  • 2003 – We Got Robbed: Live in New Orleans (self-released)
  • 2004 – Jazz Fest 2004 (Home Grown Distribution)
  • 2004 – Funeral for a Friend (Ropeadope)
  • 2005 – This Is the Dirty Dozen Brass Band (Shout! Factory)
  • 2005 – Jazz Moods: Hot (Columbia)
  • 2006 – What's Going On (Shout! Factory){{cite news|last1=Schultz|first1=Barbara|title=Dirty Dozen: What's Going On? REINVENTION OF MARVIN GAYE'S MASTERPIECE|url=http://www.mixonline.com/news/profiles/dirty-dozen-whats-going/365698|access-date=6 September 2015|publisher=Mix Online|date=1 September 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906031011/http://www.mixonline.com/news/profiles/dirty-dozen-whats-going/365698|archive-date=6 September 2015}}
  • 2012 – Twenty Dozen (Savoy Jazz)
  • 2018 – Live at JazzFest 2018 (Munck Music)
  • 2019 – Live at the 2023 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival 2019 (Munck Music)
  • 2022 – Live in New Orleans (501 Record Club)
  • 2023 – Live at the 2023 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (Munck Music)
  • 2024 – Live at JazzFest 2024 (Munck Music)

{{div col end}}

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band appears on:{{cite web |title=The Dirty Dozen Brass Band |url=https://www.discogs.com/artist/272920-The-Dirty-Dozen-Brass-Band?superFilter=Credits&page=2 |website=discogs.com |publisher=Discogs |access-date=23 January 2025}}{{cite web |title=The Dirty Dozen Brass Band |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-dirty-dozen-brass-band-mn0000128290#credits |website=allmusic.com |publisher=Allmusic |access-date=23 January 2025}}

{{div col}}

{{div col end}}

Awards and honors

= [[Grammy Awards]] =

class="wikitable"

|+

!Year

!Category

!Work nominated

!Result

!Ref.

2023

|Best American Roots Performance

|"Stompin' Ground"

|{{won}}

|{{Cite web |title=The Dirty Dozen Brass Band |url=https://grammy.com/artists/the-dirty-dozen-brass-band/52267 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231111172957/https://www.grammy.com/artists/the-dirty-dozen-brass-band/52267 |archive-date=2023-11-11 |access-date=2024-03-02 |website=Grammy Awards}}

= [[OffBeat (music magazine)|''OffBeat'']]'s Best of The Beat Awards =

class="wikitable"

|+

!Year

!Category

!Work nominated

!Result

!Ref.

rowspan="2" |2002

|Best Brass Band

|

|{{won}}

|{{Cite web |date=2011-09-08 |title=Best of the Beat Award Winners: Complete List |url=https://www.offbeat.com/best-of-the-beat-award-winners-complete-list/,%20https://www.offbeat.com/best-of-the-beat-award-winners-complete-list/ |access-date=2024-03-02 |website=OffBeat Magazine |language=en-US |archive-date=2023-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230814182218/https://www.offbeat.com/best-of-the-beat-award-winners-complete-list/ |url-status=dead }}

Best Brass Band Album

|Medicated Magic

|{{won}}

|

rowspan="2" |2004

|Best Brass Band

|

|{{won}}

|

Best Brass Band Album

|Funeral for a Friend

|{{won}}

|

2006

|Best Brass Band Album

|What's Going On

|{{won}}

|

2020

|Lifetime Achievement in Music

|

|{{won}}

|

References

{{Reflist}}

Further reading

  • 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}}

External links

{{commons category}}

  • [http://www.dirtydozenbrass.com/ Official website]
  • [https://archive.org/details/DirtyDozenBrassBand Dirty Dozen Brass Band collection] at the Internet Archive's live music archive
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20060508071934/http://www.ropeadope.com/press/ddbb/pages/content/presskit/online/ Press Kit from Ropeadope Records]
  • [http://www.musicweb-international.com/encyclopaedia/d/D100.HTM MusicWeb Encyclopedia of Popular Music]
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20080118213428/http://jazz.about.com/od/interviews/a/efremtowns.htm Interview with Efrem Towns] at About.com
  • [http://www.thewaster.com/interview/dirty-dozen-brass-band-voodoo-on-the-bayou/ Interview with Roger Lewis] at TheWaster.com

{{Authority control}}

Category:Jazz ensembles from New Orleans

Category:Concord Records artists

Category:Brass bands from New Orleans

Category:Musical groups established in 1977

Category:Grammy Award winners