Weekend guide: New Orleans brass band: Wants your body, mind and soul

Good times

“I have been playing since I had 13 and in this band since 1977 so now I kinda know what to do to get the audience. People are people everywhere. They all kinda want the same things,” says Roger Lewis, baritone saxophone player.
New Orleans’ brass band ‘Dirty Dozen Brass Band’ will make their debut in Macau tonight, at 8 pm, at the Macau Cultural Centre’s small auditorium. However, it is not their first concert in China and they are comfortable with a Chinese audience.
“We came to Beijing, maybe in 2004,” Roger recalls.
“I was … well,” Roger continues “it was not that long as the Tiananmen square, but while performing the show we just found out that people are the same everywhere. People like to come out for good music and have a good time, no matter their problems,” he says.
“One of the things that I remember was to see people walking in the street after the concert and the rhythm was still with them. They were still dancing, because then had a good time,” Gregory Davis, trumpet player and vocals, concludes.
In Macau, the band is expecting the crowd to “get involved and join in”. “We would like to them to give us their mind, body and soul. Three in one,” Gregory says.
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band will play music from all their records. The latest one is a re-issue of their first record ‘My Feet Can’t Fail Me Now’.
“That was originally recorded in 1984 and it represents what the band was at that time. It was still something new, because brass bands were new in the US and throughout the world,” Roger explains.
The Dirty Dozen revolutionized the New Orleans brass band style by incorporating funk and bebop into the traditional New Orleans style, and has been a major influence on the majority of New Orleans brass bands since.
New Orleans was devastated by the hurricane Katrina in 2005. Today, according to the band members, it is been better than it has ever been, at least musically speaking.
“There are more bands playing in more places, travelling more around the world than ever before. If there is a positive thing to come out of Katrina I think music focused a lot of attention.
“Because a lot of other media came to New Orleans looking for stories, trying to see what was going on, it allowed some other groups to get some attention that might haven’t gotten otherwise,” Roger says.
 Five of the seven members of the band play together since 1977. They play 180 to 200 concerts a year on tour. The band has just come back from Australia after two and half weeks and will go to Japan following the Macau concert.
“We are like a family and we have our differences. We all give fuss and fight, and sometimes we have big arguments. But it’s like any other family or close relationship. We know almost what everybody is thinking and feeling all the time,” Roger says.

Alexandra Lages

For more details see www.icm.gov.mo