Slideshow: Ernest "Doc" Watson's Jazz Funeral

c/o Offbeat

Slideshow: Ernest “Doc� Watson’s Jazz Funeral :: offBeat :: Louisiana and New Orleans Online Music Resource

Ernest “Doc” Watson R.I.P.

c/o New Orleans Music

On Saturday morning, February 27, 2010, the New Orleans traditional jazz community laid to rest one of the icons, the saxophonist Ernest “Doc” Watson. The funeral was held at St. Katherine Drexel Catholic Church on Louisiana Avenue in uptown New Orleans. Over 25 musicians came out to pay respect to the legendary musician who performed with the Young Tuxedo and Olympia Brass Bands as well as with the Preservation Hall band over the course of his long career. Most of the musicians were inside the church when the service ended. They paraded outside preceeding the casket of the deceased.

The procession heads up the aisle led by two Grand Marshals

William Smith, trumpet and Roger Lewis, baritone saxophone, lead the band out of the church.

Dr. Michael White, clarinet, and Julius “Jap” McKee, sousaphone, were among the many musicians paying respect to “Doc.”

As the up tempo second line portion of the jazz funeral got under way both musicians and mourners had their exuberance on display for a life well lived.

After several blocks of spirited blowing, drumming and dancing, the music slowed and the crowded paused for the ritual of “cutting loose of the body.” The musicians split in half as the funeral cortege passed between the assembled.

The final song of the funeral was the mournful, “Lead Me Savior,” as all in attendance contemplated our earthly bonds. Here trumpeters Wendell Brunious and Greggory Stafford hit just the right notes.

All photos by Kim Welsh

In Memory: Ernest “Doc” Watson

(June 2, 1932 – February 19, 2010)

“I like all kinds of music, but now I feel I owe it to myself and my musical heritage to keep this jazz going. Over the past twenty years, black musicians have more of an interest in preserving what we have done, and getting people to realize what we’ve done. We’ve contributed the only real American art form – jazz.

We shouldn’t change it every week, like pop music.”

At 77 years old, Ernest “Doc” Watson was the last surviving member of the old guard of The Olympia Brass Band, the enigmatic brass band led and popularized by Harold “Duke” Dejan and Milton Batiste. A musician all his life, Ernest started his journey as a French horn player with the Booker T. Washington High School Band. After switching to alto saxophone, he joined up with Ellis Marsalis in his early dance band, The Groovy Boys, before joining the service in 1952. It wasn’t until later, as a member of Little Millet and the Creoles, that Doc switched to tenor saxophone. Having spent much of the sixties playing with the Young Tuxedo Brass Band, Doc was approached by Harold Dejan to join the Olympia Brass Band as a replacement for David Grillier in the mid-seventies. He stayed through the group as long as it remained active, and continued to play weekly at Preservation Hall through the end of 2009.

He will be greatly missed.