Thoughtfully assembling 13 tracks from long-established names to younger bands, Ultimate New Orleans Brass: Second Line Funk! not only serves as a primer into one of the USA’s last remaining actively played forms of indigenous music, it’ll most assuredly enliven any shindig requiring a pick-me-up. Released this past August, on 10/7 it gets a deserving double-vinyl pressing.
Amongst the deepest elements in 20th century recorded sound are the constant twists and turns fostered through regional identities. In the US alone, along with numerous outposts in Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta, and of course New Orleans, the 1900s saw enduring styles emanate from Chicago, Detroit, Nashville, and Memphis.
Furthermore, smaller but essential scenes popped up in Bakersfield and on the Texas-Mexico border as distinct punk rock rose out of NYC, LA, and elsewhere. Post-punk aftershocks also rippled from Athens, GA and Seattle, WA as coastal (and frequently competitive) individualism helped to define an era of hip-hop.
These days, at least in the US, regional flavors are an extremely rare occurrence, which is part of the reason Ultimate New Orleans Brass is such a welcome endeavor, spotlighting the city’s brass band style as born from the foot parades sponsored/undertaken by various community organizations and benevolent groups. They constitute the First Line and the band and its followers the Second; it’s a tradition very much alive and therefore thankfully not dominated by purist attitudes and/or the kid-glove museum approach.
Since the mid-’70s, Warren Hildebrand’s Mardi Gras Records has been a big player in disseminating New Orleans’ second line heft, and this comp rounds up selections from that discography to present a vivid if by no means exhaustive (or exhausting) portrait of the story. It starts with the Rebirth Brass Band, likely the most recognizable act currently extant on the second line scene, a status reflective in their four entries, more than any other unit collected here.
Formed in 1983 by trumpeter Kermit Ruffins, tuba player/leader Philip Frazier, and his bass drummer brother Keith Frazier (all then in high-school), Rebirth basically exemplifies the combination of tradition-based richness, contemporary vibrancy, stylistic discipline, and musical prowess needed to effectively move a street gathering.
Opening the set is Rebirth’s explosively funky “Do Whatcha Wanna,” the track brandishing celebratory horn fanfares and unflagging forward motion, the rhythm largely unaltered until later in the cut, at which point fevered yet confident soloing steps to the fore. Along the way they display a firm grasp on a melodious R&B-based dynamic that’s illuminated even more in their cover of LeVert’s ’87 hit “Casanova.”
It’s a number as fluid as it is thick with Philip’s tuba, an instrument (with its close relative the sousaphone) that helps distinguish the New Orleans brass sound. However, “Feel like Funkin’ It Up,” sandwiched here betwixt “Do Whatcha Wanna” and “Casanova,” features a wealth of sharp trombone. Additionally, the piece’s quick tempo reinforces their parade bona fides as a barrage of heated playing launches from its platform.
This isn’t to suggest that clubs and halls weren’t/aren’t a part of Rebirth’s agenda; they have toured extensively, and their ’84 debut for Arhoolie as Rebirth Jazz Band (Here to Stay!) was cut at the Grease Lounge. But the music, as easily evidenced by what’s here, is designed to be played on the pavement. The Soul Rebels are quite a contrast to the tight punch of Rebirth’s street attack; in a manner similar to the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, the outfit formed in 1991 by percussionist Derrick Moss and Lamar LeBlanc is stage based.
Using the brass band template as a starting point and then expanding upon it significantly by adding vocals (including a smooth R&B croon) that simply wouldn’t work in a pure second line context, the Soul Rebels’ hip-hop flavored “Let Your Mind Be Free” can be aptly pegged as an expansive hybrid, and one that upon arrival in 1994 was reportedly divisive. It’s a likeable, deftly executed effort (now required brass band learning), but I frankly value the contributions of the other youngsters included here a bit more.
For instance; the Lil Rascals Brass Band. Burning brief but bright, the ensemble led by Corey Henry flaunts one of the strongest moments on the entire compilation, a dual trombone, trumpet, sax, tuba, and bass drum behemoth calibrated to invigorate any party. Their “Knock with Me Rock with Me” possesses slamming rhythmic weight and marries it to vicious serrated-edge ‘bone runs. Throaty shouter Glen David Andrews holds court for the duration.
It’s a powerhouse effort potentially making the older Olympia Brass Band register a little quaint, though some will quibble fairly that the outfit founded by Harold Dejan all the way back in 1962 deserves the most exposure on Ultimate New Orleans Brass. By the time of Rebirth’s ‘80s rise, Olympia was ensconced as the city’s most important example of trad brass. Represented here by three tracks, they fit in very well.
The Soul Rebels stirred to life in the training ground of the Young Olympians, and it should be noted that Olympia gained prominence adapting soul/R&B tunes. “It Ain’t My Fault,” originally cut in ‘64 by New Orleans drummer Smokey Johnson and arranged by the great Wardell Quezergue, has apparently been recorded by Dejan’s band seven times.
The version here amplifies the loose but never off-track second line syncopation incorporated into the source material, and in comparison to some of the raucousness to come, Olympia specializes in a warm, inviting ambiance. “It Ain’t My Fault” is accurately cited as a cornerstone of the second line experience and New Orleans music in general.
In the early ‘90s, after taking a decade long break, ex Dirty Dozen drummer Benny Jones formed the Treme Brass Band. Described as rigorously trad in orientation, Treme’s assured and accessible reading of Hugh Masekela’s “Grazing in the Grass” illuminates the second line’s jazz component, an aspect highlighted further by the inspired collectivity and magnificently thumping bass drum of the self-referential nugget “Olympia on Parade.”
The New Birth Brass Band arose from the Olympia Junior Band, and with the Soul Rebels they embody the biggest breaks from tradition found on this compilation. But where the Rebels ultimately connect like ambassadors, New Birth, still led today by founding drummers Cayetano “Tanio” Hingle and Kerry Hunter, deliver parade route haymakers.
Nothing illustrates this better than New Birth’s second line transfusion of the Sugarhill Gang’s “Apache,” a 1982 rap realignment of the ‘60 instrumental hit by The Shadows of Great Britain. Not especially different from Sugarhill’s sly block party revamping, New Birth instead hones it to successfully unwind down avenues and boulevards.
“Apache” commences a five-song stretch emphasizing the range of Ultimate New Orleans Brass. Immediately following is Hustlers Brass Band, an outfit formed by members of the Soul Rebels relocated in Houston, TX post-Hurricane Katrina. Curiously, their take of traditional doozy “The Second Line” lands pretty near the old-school objective of Benny Jones’ Treme, and it segues smoothly into Olympia’s stately treatment of Professor Longhair’s truly bedrock “Mardi Gras in New Orleans”
If “Let Your Mind Be Free” and “Apache” reveal the integration of hip-hop into the second line equation, cementing the relationship is New Birth’s “Who Dat Called Da Police.” It’s heavy with Kerwin “Fat” James’ air bass as Glen David Andrews reemerges from Lil Rascals to seek a visceral response from the listener; the song quickly conjures a torrid atmosphere and thickens it with spirited horns.
As the name implies, New Birth impresses as being closely related to the raw, occasionally impolite aura of Rebirth, who appropriately return to finalize affairs, in the process putting a nice exclamation point on the second line’s malleability with likeminded genres via a swell cover of Chuck Brown & the Soul Searchers’ Go-Go monster “I Feel like Busting Loose.”
Go-Go fans having yet to soak up what’s detailed above are in for a treat, as are any ears slain by funky live band action of assorted shapes and sizes. In smartly crafted variance it stands as a terrific introduction to its subject, and as much of the contents are new to vinyl it’s also of use to aficionados with turntables. From side one to four Ultimate New Orleans Brass: Second Line Funk! is an excellent journey into one of the final bastions of regionalism.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
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