Keeping the Beat on the Street

Told in the words of the musicians themselves, Keeping the Beat on the Street celebrates the renewed passion and pageantry among black brass bands in New Orleans. Mick Burns introduces the people who play the music and shares their insights, showing why New Orleans is the place where jazz continues to grow. Uniformed brass bands have been around since the late-nineteenth century, but African American brass bands in New Orleans have always played music differently: the way it is lived on the street. Performing in funeral processions and in parades for social clubs, they learned how to play by interacting with their audiences. Brass bands waned during the civil rights era but revived around 1970 and then flourished in the 1980s. In the only book to cover this revival, Burns interviews members of a variety of bands, including the Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band, the Dirty Dozen, Tuba Fats' Chosen Few, and the Rebirth Brass Band. He captures their thoughts about the music, their careers, audiences, influences from rap and hip-hop, the resurgence of New Orleans social and pleasure clubs and second lines, traditional versus funk style, recording deals, and touring.
For anyone who loves jazz and the city where it was born, Keeping the Beat on the Street is a book to savor.