Dirty Dozen Brass Band

On March 3, 1987, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band joined the Dead on stage for a Mardi Gras parade and Iko Iko. The Dirty Dozen enliven the tune with their horns and lyrics, and everyone is having a fantastic time on stage (check out the video). With the Dirty Dozen setup far stage right, Phil is closest, and he is literally grinning from ear to ear. And why wouldn’t he be. Jerry was back from his coma, and the Dead’s future was bright. And having the New Orleans natives on hand to celebrate Mardi Gras only made it that much more special.

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band truly is New Orleans through and through. They are the products of New Orleans jazz legend Danny Barker’s Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band, the same youth band that Wynton and Branford Marsalis also grew up in. In the late 70s, a core group of Fairview Baptist alumni came together to form a new brass band. And with no paying gigs to be had in the city, they continually practiced together. Free of any commercial demands, the bandmates started incorporating rhythm and blues, beebop, soul, and funk into their music.

By the early 80s, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band finally had regular gigs across the city and were making their mark on the traditional second line sound of New Orleans. In fact, their faster tempo, innovative repertoire, and youth vitality inspired yet another New Orleans brass band renaissance. As Jeff Hannusch explained in Rolling Stone, “Once a staid, traditional style of music played by weathered old men at political rallies and shopping-mall openings, brass-band music has been radically modernized by the Dirty Dozen.”

As the eighties wore on, the Dirty Dozen grew their reach. First it was the white clubs in New Orleans, then New York, Europe, Japan, and California. And in 1987, the same year that they played with the Grateful Dead, the band signed their first major-label contract, with Columbia. In 1989, the Dirty Dozen released their Columbia debut, Voodoo, which featured a guest appearance by Branford, as well as Dizzy Gillespie and Dr. John.

Since then, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band has continued to be a force. Most memorable to jam band fans might be their live appearances on tour with Widespread Panic, which resulted in the live album, Another Joyous Occasion. That collaboration gives a slight window into what it would have been like had the Dead spent more time on stage with the Dirty Dozen. But we already knew that was another missed opportunity.