Preservation Hall Jazz Band On World Cafe

LISTEN TO WORLD CAFE PERFORMANCE HERE

This week, World Cafe invites you to discover the music of New Orleans with the series Sense of Place.

World Cafe, with host David Dye, presents a special performance of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, recorded in the birthplace of jazz. It's a special "tuba summit" in two parts, focusing on the tuba players from some New Orleans staples and their connection to the famous Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Ben Jaffe is the current director of the PHJB, and from good New Orleans stock — in fact, his parents founded the Hall. The group itself is world-renowned, playing at Carnegie Hall and for British Royalty in its quest to bring New Orleans jazz to everyone.

 

Jaffe plays the sousaphone, upright bass and banjo. Phil Frazier, another tuba player, is at the heart of another famous New Orleans jazz group, which he founded while in high school 27 years ago. The Rebirth Brass Band is true to its name, bringing hope to a city that's been through a lot — it played for countless evacuees in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Kirk Joseph is the third skilled tuba player in this group, and he helped found Dirty Dozen Brass Band, which has revived much of the brass-band culture in New Orleans today. Joseph is known for his modern tuba style, which incorporates elements of Dixieland jazz and funk.

In this interview, Dye talks with Jaffe about the fascinating history of PHJB and its decades-long history of high-profile touring. Next up, Joseph and Frazier discuss the tuba's evolution in New Orleans music and compare the instrument to the quarterback of a football team — there's only one, and it's a key position. The session is rounded out by a number of jazz pieces, recorded live.

NPR: Where The Tuba Lives: 5 New Orleans Songs Featuring The Fat Horn

Where The Tuba Lives: 5 New Orleans Songs Featuring The Fat Horn

by Geoffrey Himes

Kirk Joseph of Dirty Dozen Brass Band on sousaphone.

The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival begins Friday, and music fans from all over the world will flock to the city's racetrack for seven days of music. A lot of things make New Orleans a one-of-a-kind music town, but one is the tuba, the monstrous brass instrument worn like a python squeezing its victim. When jazz began there after WWI, the tuba supplied the rhythmic bottom. As the music spread to Chicago, New York and beyond, the tuba spread with it, but was soon replaced by the more precise double bass. The hard-to-control (but easy to parade with) tuba soon disappeared from jazz almost everywhere, but not in the music's birthplace.

In New Orleans, even today, having a tuba in the band remains standard operating procedure. It's used not only in the city's countless parades (any excuse will do), not only in the trad-jazz outfits that still flourish there, not only in the new-wave brass bands that mix funk and hip-hop into the old carnival parade music, but also in rock bands such as Bonerama and the Anders Osborne Band and in contemporary jazz bands led by John Ellis and Kermit Ruffins.

Most tuba players in New Orleans play the sousaphone, a kind of tuba designed by John Philip Sousa himself to be easier to carry, with a wider bore for warmer sound and a forward-facing bell for better projection. Music sounds different when it's anchored by a sousaphone rather than an acoustic or electric bass. Because it's a wind instrument rather than a string instrument, the tuba gives New Orleans music a bottom that bubbles rather than twangs. Here are five examples of how the tuba makes its mark on the city's music.

5 New Orleans Songs Featuring The Fat Horn

Tuba Fats

After the heyday of traditional New Orleans jazz had passed, tuba music was kept alive in New Orleans by Allan Jaffe — who led the aptly named Preservation Hall Jazz Band — by Walter Payton (father of modern jazz star Nicholas) and by Tuba Fats. Anthony "Tuba Fats" Lacen (1950-2004) played with many of the city's top parade ensembles (the Young Tuxedo, Treme, Olympia and Chosen Few Brass Bands) and he showed the way to the tuba's embrace of funkier, bluesier music. You can hear that in this 1985 version of Professor Longhair's carnival standard, "Mardi Gras in New Orleans."

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band

It's hard to overestimate the impact of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band on New Orleans music. When a group of young and unknown horn players and marching drummers started playing weekly gigs in the late '70s at Daryl's and the Glass House, they expanded the brass-band repertoire beyond the old warhorses to include everything from James Brown to Thelonious Monk, as well as vigorous originals. They played with a muscular funk that was largely propelled by Kirk Joseph's sousaphone. The band convinced a generation that brass-band music was cool and inspired the Rebirth Brass Band, the Soul Rebels Brass Band, the New Birth Brass Band and dozens more. But none of the younger groups had the jazz chops that the Dozen had, as you can hear in this 1985 medley of Monk's "Blue Monk" and T-Bone Walker's "Stormy Monday." The Dirty Dozen Brass Band plays the Jazzfest on May 1.

Rebirth Brass Band

The most prominent of the Dirty Dozen's heirs was the Rebirth Brass Band, co-founded in 1982 by three teenagers: trumpeter (and future Treme star) Kermit Ruffins, bass drummer Keith Frazier and tuba player Philip Frazier. They were too young to have sophisticated jazz chops or tastes; they were out to create a distinctive form of New Orleans dance music. They did just that, thanks in large part to the rolling bass lines that rumbled and tumbled out of Frazier's tuba. They summed up their philosophy in this 1989 recording, "Feel Like Funkin' It Up." The Rebirth Brass Band plays the Jazzfest on May 8.

Bonerama

Bonerama gets its name from the fact that four-sevenths of the band are trombonists. But the band's bottom is held down by sousaphonist Matt Perrine, whose ability to play eighth notes and triplets on his unwieldy instrument is showcased here in his 2007 composition, "Bayou Betty." Unlike most of the city's brass bands, Bonerama emphasizes rock 'n' roll over jazz and R&B, giving songs by Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles an unexpected Mardi Gras flavor. Bonerama plays the Jazzfest on May 6.

Anders Osborne

Kirk Joseph, the Dirty Dozen's original tuba player, later played for years with Anders Osborne, the Swedish-born blues singer who settled in New Orleans at age 19 and became one of the city's musical fixtures. With the zeal of a convert, Osborne adopted the local habits, including the use of the tuba to give his blues a percolating feel that one would never hear in nearby Mississippi, much less Sweden. You can hear how he and Joseph feed off each other in this 2001 Osborne original, "Stoned, Drunk and Naked." Osborne plays the Jazzfest on May 1.

In Pictures: Papa Grows Funk @ Sullivan Hall

Papa Grows Funk - Sullivan Hall, NYC 12/17/10




Papa Grows Funk - Sullivan Hall, NYC 12/17/10




Kirk Joseph - Sullivan Hall, NYC 12/17/10

Vote for the next Threadhead Records project

Fan-funded New Orleans-based Threadhead Records is hosting a poll to help determine their next project. You do not have to register to vote. You just click on the link and can vote once per IP address per day through 10/18.


My favorites include: Midnite Disturbers (the all-star brass band, which has included Stanton Moore, Kevin O'Day, Skerik, Ben Ellman, Big Sam, Mark Mullins, Shamarr Allen, Troy Andrews, Kirk Joseph, Matt Perrine)

Tin Men feat. Alex McMurray, Matt Perrine (again) & Washboard Chaz

Injun Orchestra


Feel free to vote for your favorite.

Vote Here! Poll Closes at 12am est 10/18

One vote per IP address, per day. At the end of the week, the top 10 suggestions will be put up for a final vote. Final poll will be open for another week and at the end of that time, THR will choose a project from the top 3 most popular suggestions to pursue. Note: There is no guarantee that any project suggested will materialize into a THR project but THR will seriously investigate the possibility.

Who should we pursue for our next project?
	AfricanZydeco Revue
	RamaFest: Twangorama and Bonerama collaboration
	David Torkanowsky
	Kora Konnection
	Anders Osborne (?), Johnny Sansone and John Fohl
	VOW
	Germaine Bazzle
	groovesect and the soul project (soulsect)
	Threadhead Records All-Stars
	A childrens CD recording the music clinic kids
	All That
	Midnite Disturbers
	Paul Sanchez and the Rolling Road Show
	Threadhead Records artists do the History of New Orleans music
	Wendell Brunious
	Christmas funk compilation
	Junko Pardners
	The Injun Orchestra
	Creole String Beans
	Brint Anderson
	Helen Gillet
	Joe Krown trio
	Bob Andrews
	(Big Fine) Ellen Smith
	John Gros
	Sasha Masakowski
	Tin Men
	Johnny Sansone
	Beatin Path

http://www.threadheadrecords.com

Tonight: Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Jon Batiste Band @ BB King's

New Orleans Brass-Band Legends

THE DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND Featuring: Sp. Guest Opener Jon Batiste Band 2010-06-08 8:00PM Doors @ 7PM DDBB Website DDBB Myspace Jon Batiste Myspace In 1977, the Dirty Dozen Social and Pleasure Club in New Orleans began showcasing a traditional Crescent City brass band. It was a joining of two proud, but antiquated, traditions at the time: social and pleasure clubs dated back over a century to a time when black southerners could rarely afford life insurance, and the clubs would provide proper funeral arrangements. Brass bands, early predecessors of jazz as we know it, would often follow the funeral procession playing somber dirges, then once the family of the deceased was out of earshot, burst into jubilant dance tunes as casual onlookers danced in the streets. By the late '70s, few of either existed. The Dirty Dozen Social and Pleasure Club decided to assemble this group as a house band, and over the course of these early gigs, the seven-member ensemble adopted the venue's name: the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Thirty years later, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band is a world famous music machine, whose name is synonymous with genre-bending romps and high-octane performances. They have revitalized the brass band in New Orleans and around the world, progressing from local parties, clubs, baseball games and festivals in their early years to touring nearly constantly in the U.S. and in over 30 other countries on five continents. The Dirty Dozen have been featured guests on albums by artists including David Bowie, Elvis Costello, Dr. John and the Black Crowes. The city of New Orleans even has an official Dirty Dozen Brass Band Day.

In Pictures: Anders Osborne @ Sullivan Hall

In Pictures: Kirk Joseph & Backyard Groove & Jambalaya Brass Band @ Sullivan Hall

By Dino Perrucci Photography / Greg Aiello


Kirk Joseph - Sullivan Hall, NYC 1/28/10


Steven Bernstein - Sullivan Hall, NYC 1/28/10


Charles Joseph - Sullivan Hall, NYC 1/28/10


Jambalaya Brass Band - Sullivan Hall, NYC 1/28/10

Kirk Joseph @ Sullivan Hall


The Backyard Groove @ Sullivan Hall


Steven Bernstein @ Sullivan Hall


Charles Joseph @ Sullivan Hall


Matthew Thomas @ Sullivan Hall


Steven Bernstein & Charles Joseph @ Sullivan Hall


Takishi @ Sullivan Hall


Gene @ Sullivan Hall


Jambalaya Brass Band @ Sullivan Hall


Walt Szymanski @ Sullivan Hall


Ric Hall @ Sullivan Hall

NolaFunk's Shows of the Week

1/26 Of Montreal @ Highline Ballroom

1/27 Haiti Benefit feat. Cold War Kids, Ted Leo, The Wrens, Sondre Lerche, Eugen Mirman, AC Newman -w- Rhett Miller & Nicole Atkins @ Bell House (brooklyn)

1/28 Kirk Joseph's Backyard Groove, Jambalaya Brass Band @ Sullivan Hall (NolaFunk)

1/28 Wayne Krantz w/ Lefebvre, Carlock @ 55 Bar (late)

1/28 Felice Brothers @ Mexicali Blues (teaneck,nj)

1/28 Antibalas @ Knitting Factory

1/29 Gene Ween Band @ Highline Ballroom

1/29 Shannon McNally & Hot Sauce @ 92Y Tribeca (NolaRootsRock)

In Pictures: Freaks Ball X feat. Anders Osborne @ Sullivan Hall

By greg aiello

Kirk Joseph & Anders Osborne @ Sullivan Hall



Anders Osborne @ Sullivan Hall



Kirk Joseph @ Sullivan Hall



Anders Osborne & Kirk Joseph @ Sullivan Hall



KJ's Sousaphone @ Sullivan Hall



Anders Osborne @ Sullivan Hall



Kirk Joseph @ Sullivan Hall



Anders Osborne Band @ Sullivan Hall

In Pictures: Anders Osborne, Billy Iuso & Restless Natives @ Sullivan Hall

By Dino Perrucci Photography

Anders Osborne - Sullivan Hall, NYC 11/7/09




Anders Osborne - Sullivan Hall, NYC 11/7/09


Kirk Joseph - Sullivan Hall, NYC 11/7/09

Kirk Joseph @ Sullivan Hall, NYC - 11/7/09

By greg aiello

Billy Iuso & The Restless Natives - Sullivan Hall, NYC 11/7/09


Billy Iuso & The Restless Natives - Sullivan Hall, NYC 11/7/09