Dirty Dozen Brass Band: Funeral for a Friend

Jazz permeates everything in New Orleans, a city where, as Sidney Bechet once said, “Music is as much of a part of death as it is of life.” Funeral for a Friend, the stirring new CD from the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, proves that Bechet’s remark still holds true.

The Dirty Dozen, who helped revive the languishing brass band scene some 25 years ago with their modern twist on a tradition that dates back to the early days of jazz, offers its take here on another of New Orleans fading traditions—the jazz funeral. Named in tribute to one of the band’s founding members, Anthony “Tuba Fats” Lacen, who passed away just after the album was recorded, Funeral for a Friend —in keeping with New Orleans custom—is a joyful farewell, alternating slow mournful dirges (“Just a Closer Walk With Thee”) and somber hymns (“Amazing Grace”) with uplifting gospel tunes (“Jesus on the Mainline”) and plenty of rousing R&B-laced instrumentals. What starts out as an occasion of pure sorrow evolves, over the course of the album (as over the course of the jazz funeral) into a wild party and a true celebration of life. Along the way, much of the history of jazz is evoked, from early Dixieland and swing to funk and even, in the frenzied simultaneous soloing of the horns, free improv.

The tradition of the New Orleans jazz funeral may be on life support, but it’s not dead—not as long as groups like the Dirty Dozen Brass Band are around to honor the tradition and breathe new life into it.