New Orleans jazz funerals

American Visions, Oct-Nov, 1998 by Ellis L. Marsalis, Jr.

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 one of the social and pleasure clubs. The time frame is important, for it was in the 1970s that jazz funerals began to change irrevocably from their traditional form. Touchet's photographs show the end of an era.

The photos represent the two main aspects of the traditional jazz funeral: the Somber journey to the gravesite and the exuberant return from it. They are images of a people experiencing and acting out a cultural memory that their ancestors were never allowed to express formally. In viewing them, one can almost hear the melodic strains of old Protestant hymns echoing through neighborhoods of shotgun houses and corner barrooms.

In a traditional jazz funeral, the band meets at the church or funeral parlor where the dismissal services are being conducted. After the service, the band leads the procession slowly through the neighborhood. In a recent film, Jazz Funeral: From the Inside, Milton Batiste, the lead trumpeter in DeJean's Olympia Brass Band, observed that "as the procession heads through the neighborhood, you might see a black wreath hanging on the door where the deceased lived or worked." The mood is, generally somber, and the musical selections are taken from Christian hymns, 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 only a few blocks, since burial sites are not always within walking distance of the church or funeral parlor. If the cemetery is nearby, the band accompanies the procession to it. When the interment ceremony is completed, the band leads the procession from the gravesite without playing. When a respectful distance from the site has been reached, the lead trumpeter sounds a two-note preparatory riff to alert his fellow musicians. At this point, the drummers 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, even joyous, activity on the part of family, friends and other celebrants -- the group affectionately known as the "second line." Out come umbrellas, many of them elaborately decorated, that seem to be more about styling and profiling than protection from nature's elements.

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

One of the more popular songs 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 good time doing it. Another favorite, of course, is "When the Saints Go Marching In." Legend has it that "Saints" was a regular feature at prayer meetings and Sunday services; one day, some of the churchfolk heard a jazz band playing it returning from a funeral, and it was never sung again as a part of their church services.

Playing a very 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 club as the deceased. His demeanor -- head erect, expression solemn, dressed in a black tuxedo, while gloves, black hat held respectfully in his hand while taking slow but measured steps -- is crucial to the dignity of the procession on the way to the gravesite, and his jauntiness and energy set the tone for the band and the dancing second-liners alike on the return journey that announces to the community the good news that another soul has gone on home.

Much of this has changed, or is changing, now. Although the jazz funeral is very much a part of New Orleans' black culture, some of the younger brass band players are either unfamiliar with or indifferent to the traditional music. It is common to hear bands play popular songs 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: Often now the livelier music begins at the church door. The newer bands generally are not attached to social and pleasure clubs. Moreover, whereas jazz funerals were traditionally for musicians and club members, today they are for anyone who can pay for them.

Since the 1970s, with the influence of the pop-funk music scene, brass bands like the Dirty Dozen, the Soul Rebels, Pinstrip, Algiers, Rebirth, and many other continually forming groups have carried the torch. Although the younger players do not always honor the music of the past, tradition and custom in New Orleans have themselves always been about improvising. In her essay "One More Last chance: Ritual and the Jazz Funeral," native New Orleanian and writer Brenda Marie Osbey puts it this way: "The ability not merely to adapt but to improvise is itself inherent in all out notions of tradition." The traditional jazz funeral expresses a recognition that there is something not only to mourn, but also to celebrate, even in death; the same truth applies to the ongoing metamorphosis of the jazz funeral custom itself.