The Storyville Stompers are by far the best and most professional brass band we have worked with! We highly recommend them.Īllison & Russel - New Orleans, LA Festivals We are in over 50 parades and mock jazz funerals a year and have worked with almost all of the local brass bands. We can perform on stage at receptions and also provide small jazz combos for hospitality suites or intimate settings. We can parade through the ball room in the colorful New Orleans second-line tradition or stroll your exhibit hall or reception. We can parade visitors from hotels to restaurants or other destinations in New Orleans style. The Storyville Stompers have performed for countless convention visitors to New Orleans and other cities. Gentilly Sheik - New Orleans, LA Conventions and of course the ever effervescent Wesley out front!! Best to you all and see ya in the street! Over the years your sound has come to equal that of the great Olympia, Eureka and Young Tuxedo Bands. Great to see you guys still out there blowing down the sky!!! I never miss any chance I get to see and hear you all. We have also performed on celebrity floats in the world famous Bacchus and Orpheus Mardi Gras parades as well as parades in Europe, Asia and South America. We also perform as a unit in large second lines and parades. Sidney Bechet, the renowned New Orleans jazzman, once said, “Music is as much a part of death as it is of life.” The jazz funeral today still plays an integral part of the rich heritage of the African American Community of New Orleans and will continue on for generations to come.The Storyville Stompers Brass Band can parade your group from one destination to another in traditional New Orleans second-line parade style. Onlookers who join in behind the riveting funeral band, are called the “second line.” The second line is encouraged to join in the rolling excitement and, they usually perform a strutting dance step that carries the participants forward in pace with the band.Īlthough the majority of jazz funerals are for musicians, anyone can request one. “The family members and friends say their final goodbyes, and afterward, the funeral band launches into rousing, upbeat tunes such as “When the Saints Go Marching In.” “After interring the deceased in the family crypt, a significant change in tempo takes place,” Boetticher added. The parade master, dressed formally wearing a lavish sash, a black hat, and sometimes includes a decorative parasol, typically walks at the front of the funeral procession as the procession makes its way past major thoroughfares and down the neighborhood streets of New Orleans. The group, also known as ‘the first line,’ play somber funeral dirges and traditional spiritual hymns.” It leads its way to the cemetery, sometimes using a horse-drawn hearse. Once the funeral wake ends, the band accompanies the family from the funeral home or church. This jazz music is unique and quite different from contemporary jazz or even traditional Dixieland jazz.īoetticher said, “Today’s jazz funerals adhere to a strictly defined parade structure. The funeral bands quickly adopted jazz, and New Orleans jazz funerals were born. From all of this, a new style of music emerged – jazz. They celebrated with their black brass bands after a loved one’s death to please the spirits who protect the dead. Other influences in the early twentieth century include the Mardi Gas Indians (carnival performers who dress in suits influenced by Native Americans), and the African American Protestant churches. The convergence of the French, Spanish and British who colonized the area paired with the West African tribes from the domestic slave trade in the early 1800s, significantly attributed to this colorful culture. New Orleans has a rich and fascinating history. This exhibition will focus on the late 1800s through today, in New Orleans, Louisiana, on how a common way to bid farewell to a loved one originated with a jazz funeral or a funeral with music that is now a tradition unique to the city of New Orleans, especially among the African American community. “We are very excited to be able to present this exhibit that highlights the history and culture of jazz funerals unique to New Orleans to the American people,” stated Bob Boetticher, Sr., Chairman of the National Museum of Funeral History. The National Museum of Funeral History is proud to announce the opening of its 16th permanent exhibit, Jazz Funerals of New Orleans, on November 12 at 10 a.m.
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