Dirty Dozen Brass Band
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band has borrowed on Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On?” inspiration to create a crowning achievement in their own career, which spans more than three decades of innovation and leadership in New Orleans music and beyond.
Mixing vibrant instrumental pieces with simmering, scorching vocal numbers (performed by guests Chuck D., Bettye LaVette, G. Love, Ivan Neville and Guru), the Dirty Dozen has translated the songs from What’s Going On into its own music language. The new recordings are infused with the powerful feelings resulting from the band’s own experiences with Hurricane Katrina, the subsequent massive flooding and the devastation of their homes and communities.
The August 29th Shout! Factory release of What’s Going On marks the one-year anniversary of Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans. “It just made sense in light of all that happened with the storm,” says trumpeter Gregory Davis, who with fellow Dirty Dozen co-founders Roger Lewis (baritone and soprano sax), Kevin Harris (tenor sax) and Efrem Towns (trumpet, flugelhorn), make up the group’s core. “But even beyond that, to ask ‘What’s going on?’ in the world makes sense.
The Dirty Dozen has been up for big challenges in the past with its bracing, innovative blend of traditional New Orleans sounds and modern jazz sensibilities. The ensemble has recorded with artists from Dizzy Gillespie (a hero and inspiration) to Elvis Costello, taken on the music of jazz inventor Jelly Roll Morton for the album Jelly and reinterpreted the hymns and parade songs of the Crescent City second-line bands for 2004’s Funeral For A Friend (following the death of co-founding member Tuba Fats). In the course, the band resurrected, revitalized and put distinctly personal stamps on what was a dying tradition of New Orleans brass bands when the group formed in the late ‘70s, inspiring a full-on revival that’s flourished with several new generations of young brass bands each bringing their own twists to the form.