Keeping the Beat on the Street: The New Orleans Brass Band Renaissance

by Mick Burns

Overview

Told in the words of the musicians themselves, Keeping the Beat on the Street celebrates the renewed passion and pageantry among black brass bands in New Orleans. Mick Burns introduces the people who play the music and shares their insights, showing why New Orleans is the place where jazz continues to grow. Brass bands waned during the civil rights era but revived around 1970 and then flourished in the 1980s when the music became cool with the younger generation. In the only book to cover this revival, Burns interviews members from a variety of bands, including the Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band, the Dirty Dozen, Tuba Fats' Chosen Few, and the Rebirth Brass Band. He captures their thoughts about the music, their careers, audiences, influences from rap and hip-hop, the resurgence of New Orleans social and pleasure clubs and second lines, traditional versus funk style, recording deals, and touring. For anyone who loves jazz and the city where it was born, Keeping the Beat on the Street is a book to savor.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807155837
Publisher:	Louisiana State University Press
Publication date:	02/01/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	216
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Mick Burns is the author of The Great Olympia Band and has played jazz professionally in Europe and the United States for forty years. He lives in Spilsby, Lincolnshire, in England.

Mick Burns (1942—2007) was the author of The Great Olympia Band and Walking with Legends: Barry Martyn's New Orleans Jazz Odyssey and played jazz professionally in Europe and the United States for forty years. He lived in Spilsby, Lincolnshire, in England.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     xi
Introduction     1
Band Call: Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band, Hurricane Brass Band, Chosen Few Brass Band
Danny Barker and the Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band     15
"What Is the Parade For?"     18
Leroy Jones, Trumpet     21
Anthony "Tuba Fats" Lacen, Bass Horn     30
Gregg Stafford, Trumpet     40
Joe Torregano, Saxophones and Clarinet     48
Harry Sterling, Guitar     54
Tad Jones, Jazz Writer and Historian     61
Band Call: Dirty Dozen Brass Band
A Note on the Treme and Its Music     65
Gregory "Blodie" Davis, Trumpet     69
Roger Lewis, Saxophones     77
Benny Jones, Drums     83
"Uncle" Lionel Paul Batiste Sr., Bass Drum     87
A Note on the Baby Dolls     93
Jerry Brock, Historian, Broadcaster, and Filmmaker     95
Band Call: Rebirth Brass Band
The Rebirth Brass Band     107
Philip Frazier III, Bass Horn     108
Keith Frazier, Bass Drum     112
Keith "Wolf" Anderson, Trombone and Bass Horn     117
Kermit at Vaughan's, October 31, 2002     120
A Note on the Tambourine and Fan Club     123
Jerome Smith, CommunityLeader     125
Band Call: New Birth, Majestic, Algiers, All Star, Regal, Treme, Doc Paulin, Pinstripe, New Wave, Mahogany
Cayetano "Tanio" Hingle, Bass Drum     135
Kenneth "Little Milton" Terry, Trumpet     139
Edgar "Sarge" Smith, Bass Horn     143
Donna Poniatowski-Sims, Venue Proprietor     147
Ruddley Thibodeaux, Trumpet     149
James "Little Twelve," Andrews, Trumpet     160
Lajoie "Butch" Gomez, Saxophones     164
"DJ" Davis Rogan, Radio Announcer     168
A Note on Ernest "Doc" Paulin, Trumpet     170
Oscar Washington, Snare Drum     173
Brice Miller, Trumpet     177
Norman Dixon, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival Coordinator     181
Epilogue: Second Line on Sunday     183
Select Discography: Recommended Listening     187
Notes     189
Index     191

Editorial Reviews

According to Burns, jazz musician and author of The Great Olympia Band, African-American brass bands, which date back to the 1870s, "still provide a crucible for the seemingly inexhaustible supply of creative fire that is New Orleans music." He specifically addresses the resurgence of the brass band scene over the past 30 years, interviewing key musicians and other players and presenting their first-person accounts in sections titled "Band Call." Together these stories weave a loose history of the music and the social club scene that has traditionally sustained it, charting the rise of youth bands in the 1970s, the huge success of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band in the '80s and international interest that continues today. Many musicians start with the New Orleans address where they were born and recall local heroes and rehearsals in nearby garages, showing the vibrancy of brass band music to those who play it and its importance to New Orleans life. The book was completed before the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, and the disaster's implications are not considered in the text, though it is clear that the music and the city are inextricably entwined, making this retrospective as poignant as it is informative. Photos. (Jan.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Writer and jazz musician Burns provides an oral history of the burgeoning number of brass bands in New Orleans over the last 30 years. In his introduction, he outlines the growth of New Orleans social clubs (60 at last count), which created the need for brass bands at their anniversary parades and funerals. He convincingly demonstrates the evolution of the music with such groups as the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and the Rebirth Brass Band, which have kept alive yet modernized the century-long tradition. The bulk of the book is made up of nearly 20 revealing interviews with some of the main players in the brass band renaissance: local jazz legend Danny Barker; reed man Joe Torregano; trumpeters Leroy Jones, Blodie Davis, and Gregg Stafford; and drummer Benny Jones. Historians Tad Jones and Jerry Brock and community leader Jerome Smith are also featured. Overall, Burns delivers an appealing personal view of a neglected jazz subgenre, which one hopes will survive Hurricane Katrina's aftermath. Recommended for jazz buffs.-Dave Szatmary, Univ. of Washington, Seattle Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal