New Orleans jazz funerals - history - Cover Story

Rejoice When You Die is photographer Leo Touchet's documentation of several jazz funerals. The photos were taken from 1968 to 1970 at the funeral processions of clarinetist George Lewis, bassist Alcide "Slowdrag" Pavageau, drummer Paul "T-Boy" Barbarin, and Leon "Nooney-Boy" Shelly, a member of individual of the social and pleasure cudgels The time frame is important, for it was in the 1970 that jazz funerals began to change irrevocably from their traditional form. Touchet's photographs display the end of an era.

The photos show the two main aspects of the traditional jazz funeral: the Somber journey to the gravesite and the exuberant get back from it. They are images of a tribe experiencing and acting out a cultural memory that their ancestors were not ever allowed to express formally. In viewing them, single can almost hear the melodic strains of of advanced age Protestant hymns echoing through neighborhoods of shotgun houses and corner barrooms.

In a traditional jazz funeral, the band appropriates at the church or funeral parlor where the dismissal services are being leadershiped After the service, the band leads the procession slowly end the neighborhood. In a novel film, Jazz Funeral: From the Inside, Milton Batiste, the lead trumpeter in DeJean's Olympia Brass Band, observ that "as the procession heads from one side the neighborhood, you might diocese a black wreath hanging upon the door where the deceased lived or worked." The frame of mind is, generally somber, and the musical selections are taken from Christian devotional songs such as "Free as a Bird" or "Just a Closer Walk With Thee," commonly sung in black Protestant churches. While playing the hymn(s) the musicians indulge in virtually no improvisation.

The distance the band walks today may be single a few blocks, since burial sites are not always within walking distance of the meeting-house or funeral parlor. If the burying-ground is nearby, the band accompanies the procession to it. When the interment ceremonial is completed, the band leads the procession from the gravesite without playing. When a dutiful distance from the site has been reached, the lead trumpeter unbrokens a two-note preparatory riff to alert his comrade musicians. At this point, the drummer begin to play what has become known as the "second line" beat.

The band now sheds its solemnity in favor of music more conducive to lively, flat joyous, activity on the part of family, friends and other celebrants -- the assemblage affectionately known as the "second line." on the outside come umbrellas, many of them elaborately decorated, that have the appearance to be more about styling and profiling than protection from nature's elements

When a returning brass band is heard in the distance, that entire announces the impending arrival of a public celebration. Those who are willing and able will fall in behind the band, nearest to the band, between the band members, affecting the material part language of a dance, a swell a "booty bounce" to the music of the second-line beat.

single of the more popular canzonets of choice is "Didn't He Ramble?!" The title and the lyrics are suggestive of a free-spirited man who reaped what he had sown and had a advantageous time doing it. Another favorite, of course, is "When the Saints proceed Marching In." Legend has it that "Saints" was a regular feature at prayer meetings and Sunday services; single day, some of the churchfolk heard a jazz band playing it returning from a funeral, and it was not at any time sung again as a part of their meeting-house services.

Playing a true important role in the brass band is the grand marshal, who may be a band member or a member of the same social or benevolent bludgeon as the deceased. His demeanor -- head place upright expression solemn, dressed in a black tuxedo, while glove black hat held respectfully in his hand while taking deliberate but measured steps -- is crucial to the dignity of the procession upon the way to the gravesite, and his jauntiness and might set the tone for the band and the dancing second-liners alike upon the return journey that announces to the community the beneficial news that another soul has gone upon home.

abundant of this has changed, or is changing, now. Although the jazz funeral is real much a part of of recent origin Orleans' black culture, some of the younger brass band players are either unfamiliar with or indifferent to the traditional music. It is belonging to all to hear bands play popular canzonets of the day in place of the longtime standards handed down from the older musicians, and the stately march to the gravesite is becoming a thing of the past: repeatedly now the livelier music begins at the house of god door. The newer bands generally are not attached to social and pleasure cudgels Moreover, whereas jazz funerals were traditionally for musicians and cudgel members, today they are for anyone who can pay for them.

Since the 1970 with the influence of the pop-funk music spectacle brass bands like the Dirty Dozen, the spirit Rebels, Pinstrip, Algiers, Rebirth, and many other continually forming clumps have carried the torch. Although the younger players do not always honor the music of the past, tradition and custom in of recent origin Orleans have themselves always been about improvising. In her essay "One More Last chance: Ritual and the Jazz Funeral," native novel Orleanian and writer Brenda Marie Osbey deposits it this way: "The ability not simply to adapt but to improvise is itself inherent in all without notions of tradition." The traditional jazz funeral expresse a recognition that there is something not single to mourn, but also to celebrate, level in death; the same fact applies to the ongoing metamorphosis of the jazz funeral custom itself.