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Dirty Dozen Brass Band

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band is a brass band based in New Orleans, Louisiana.[1] The ensemble was established in 1977, by Benny Jones and members of the Tornado Brass Band. The Dirty Dozen incorporated funk and bebop into the traditional New Orleans jazz style, and since has been a major influence on local music. They won the Grammy Award for Best American Roots Performance in 2023.[2]

Dirty Dozen Brass Band

1977–present

Gregory Davis – trumpet, vocals
Roger Lewis – baritone, soprano sax, Vocals
Kevin Harris – Tenor saxophone, vocals
Kirk Joseph – Sousaphone
TJ Norris – Trombone, vocals
Julian Addison – Drums, Vocals
Takeshi Shimmura – Guitar

Charles Joseph – Trombone
Benny Jones – Bass drum
Lionel Batiste – Bass drum
Jenell Marshall – Snare drum
Keith Anderson – Trombone
Richard Knox – Keyboard
Big SamTrombone
Jamie McLean – Guitar
Julius McKee – Sousaphone
Revert Andrews – Trombone
Terence Higgins – Drums
Jermal Watson – Drums
Kyle Roussel – Keyboard
Jake Eckert – Guitar
Efrem Towns – Trumpet, flugelhorn

Influence[edit]

From the beginning, the music of the Dirty Dozen was a departure from the traditional New Orleans brass band sound, and as the band's popularity increased the distance between them and more traditional groups only grew. When Kirk and Charles Joseph left the band suddenly in 1991, citing the pressures of the group's demanding touring schedule, Davis was forced to replace Kirk Joseph not with another sousaphonist but with an electric bass player. Similarly, in 1994 drummers Lionel Batiste (who had replaced Benny Jones on bass drum some years earlier) and Jenell Marshall left the group; Davis was unable to find a pair of drummers who met his expectations, and instead hired a single musician to play drum kit. The subsequent addition of a keyboard player and guitarist removed the band still further from its street-band roots. Finally, throughout the band's history they relied on written arrangements to a far greater extent than do most other New Orleans brass bands.


Despite the Dirty Dozen's uniqueness, however, the band's success inspired a resurgence of New Orleans' brass band music, both in the city and nationwide. The band was most influential in the 1980s, when they demonstrated by example that brass band music could be successful by moving beyond a type of music that risked stagnation as nothing more than a tourist attraction. Before the Dirty Dozen band was formed the Olympia Brass Band was already mixing R&B and jazz influences in with traditional tunes; the Dirty Dozen took this farther, and gave the trend worldwide visibility. Bands which followed in their wake did not all follow their more jazz-oriented stage-band approach—only the Soul Rebels have gone in that direction—but a wide variety of bands, from the Rebirth Brass Band to Wisconsin's Youngblood Brass Band, have been influenced by them in other ways. Rebirth has the most direct connection with the Dirty Dozen: they got their start playing at Daryl's when the Dirty Dozen was on the road.

1984 – My Feet Can't Fail Me Now ()

Concord Jazz

1986 – Live: Mardi Gras in Montreaux ()

Rounder

1989 – (Columbia) featuring Dr. John, Dizzy Gillespie and Branford Marsalis

Voodoo

1990 – The New Orleans Album (Columbia) featuring , Dave Bartholomew, Eddie Bo and Elvis Costello

Danny Barker

1991 – Open Up: Whatcha Gonna Do for the Rest of Your Life (Columbia)

1993 – Jelly (Columbia)

1996 – Ears to the Wall ()

Mammoth

1999 – Buck Jump (Mammoth) featuring

John Medeski

2002 – Medicated Magic () featuring John Bell, Dr. John, Olu Dara, Norah Jones, DJ Logic, and Robert Randolph

Ropeadope Records

2003 – We Got Robbed: Live in New Orleans (self-released)

2004 – Funeral for a Friend (Ropeadope)

2005 – This Is the Dirty Dozen Brass Band (Compilation, )

Shout! Factory

2006 – (Shout! Factory)[7]

What's Going On

2012 – Twenty Dozen (Savoy Jazz)

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band appears on:

Burns, Mick. Keeping the Beat On the Street: The New Orleans Brass Band Renaissance. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006.  0-8071-3048-6

ISBN

Official website

at the Internet Archive's live music archive

Dirty Dozen Brass Band collection

Press Kit from Ropeadope Records

MusicWeb Encyclopedia of Popular Music

at About.com

Interview with Efrem Towns

at TheWaster.com

Interview with Roger Lewis