by Geoffrey Redick, producer
Throughout this series about New Orleans musicians, we keep coming back to two themes: artists who collaborate with lots of other artists, and artists who turn tradition on its head. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band has been doing both of those things for about 30 years. As Roger Lewis says in his conversation with Bob, every member of the band can suggest a tune — from Michael Jackson to original numbers — and, “if you not happy in the music that you playin’ it’s your fault.” Perhaps that drive for collaboration is a result of the ways many New Orleans musicians get started playing. Lewis learned at school, but also on the street and in clubs. As a teenager, he was in one of the hottest bands in the city and later played with Irma Thomas then Fats Domino before helping to start the Dirty Dozen. If you’d like to hear the origins of their formula, you can find their first album, “My Feet Can’t Fail Me Now,” here in its newly remastered format. Or, you can see them live. Check out this link to their tour schedule this summer.
Click here to see pictures of our New Orleans adventure.
Next week in part eight of our series, we go to the New Hope Baptist Church for a performance by the Blind Boys of Alabama and a conversation with founding member Jimmy Carter.
Here’s the full schedule for our summer music series:
Dr. John – May 26 – click here to listen – click here to read our blog entry
Ben Jaffe – June 2 – click here to listen – click here to read our blog entry
Stanton Moore / Trombone Shorty – June 9 – click here to listen – click here for our blog entry
Anders Osborne / Theresa Andersson – June 16 – click here to listen – here’s that blog entry
Allen Toussaint – June 23 – click here to listen – click here to read our blog entry
Irma Thomas – June 30 – click here to listen – click here to read that blog entry
Roger Lewis (of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band) – July 7 – click here to listen
Jimmy Carter (of The Blind Boys of Alabama) – July 14
Keely Smith – July 21
Jon Cleary – July 28