Our First Jazz Funeral in New Orleans
By: Yoshio Toyama
When I was in high school, getting interested in Jazz and Satchmo, I happened to buy a book in second hand book store, "Satchmo, My Life in New Orleans"
by Louis Armstrong. Louis wrote it in 1954 and it is about his life growing up in New Orleans, from 1900 to 1922. July 4th, 1900 was believed to be Pops' birthday - and he even believed it until he died. But later in the mid 1980's, jazz historian Tad Jones of New Orleans found a church record of Louis' christening, and found out he was born in 1901, and not in July but on August 4th.
The book had fabulous stories written just as Pops talks and it was filled with information of how he grew up in poverty but surrounded by great New Orleans music and great New Orleans musicians much older than him. I had a Japanese-English dictionary in one hand and managed to read it all. Thanks to Pop's book, I learned so much English while struggling with that book!
In this book, along with his interview in Life Magazine (issued April 15, 1966), the CBS movie "Satchmo The Great", ( Ed Morrow's documentary program on TV later which was later released through United Artist for movie theaters) and on Pop's tour around the world as the Ambassador of Jazz, he always talked about how beautiful music at a Jazz Funeral was, and how he learned so much music from the old time jazz men of New Orleans. He would say, "Talkin' about beautiful music, you should witness a funeral in New Orleans. On the way to the cemetery the band will play funeral marches such as "Flee as a Bird", and guys like King Oliver and Manuel Perez, the trumpeter, will play a melody and express themselves like opera singers. It's real beautiful. Then at the cemetery when the body is buried, the snare drummer will roll up and start playing jazz. And all the raggedy guys and people from the neighborhood starts dancing. They've been waiting for the Onward Brass Band with Joe Oliver and Manuel Perez to play it all ragged".
I'll never forget the first time my wife Keiko and I really saw, heard and marched with a band at a New Orleans funeral. That was in January, 1968 - only about a week after we came to New Orleans for the first time. As I've written before, we got off the immigrant boat "Brazil Maru" at Los Angeles. Jazz Club members there took us in as special guests (simply because we were on our way to New Orleans to learn Jazz), and treated us like a royal family of jazz!! It was sad to leave Los Angeles a week later to fly to New Orleans, but we were so anxious to see the "Birthplace of Jazz" ourselves.
Mr. Allan Jaffe, who came to Japan with the George Lewis Band told us he would take care of us. After Los Angeles we were expecting an even bigger welcome! When we got into New Orleans, Jaffe was out of town, but he left us a note telling us to see a guy who would take us to a place where we could stay. We found out it would be $60 a month from the first day we occupied it. We were a little spoiled after the BIG treatment we received in L.A. And when we saw the apartment, on 624 Bourbon, it was terrible ---the window was broken, there was a big pile of garbage in the center of a room, it had roaches and the bed was damp because of the window being broken. There were no working lights in the place and so I had to wait until they could find us a new lamp stand. My wife became quiet and the she started crying. But soon at 8:30 PM, a joyful sound of real New Orleans Jazz came in to our room through the broken window. Yes! Jaffe had gotten us a room right around the corner in the back of Preservation Hall, our school! That's how we found out what REAL SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY is all about.
Preservation Hall had authentic jazz every night from 8:30 PM to 12:30 AM. Many musicians the same age as Pops, and sometimes even older than Pops, were playing their hearts out. Many players were very primitive but they sure played the strongest swing beat from their whole hearts, and with all that New Orleans guts!! Sometimes we'd meet people who could not read letters or notes, but they sure played beautiful, soulful music so well! You'd never believe they couldn't read music!!
About a week after we came to New Orleans we learned about an upcoming jazz funeral from Kid Sheik, a trumpet player, who we later discovered would always brings us news about parades and jazz funerals happening in the area. The funeral was happening uptown in an area right before you get to Tulane University, around 9:00 in the morning. At the bar where the parades start, musicians in black brass band uniforms and instruments wrapped up in paper bags (easier than carrying around a heavy case) were starting to gather. With trumpeters signaling "tata tata", members of the Brass Band gathered and started a parade to the church where the funeral was being held. It was so exciting to really hear and experience the brass band jazz sound we only had previously listened to on records!
Sound Clip: Download jazz_funeral_fallen_heroes_1968_jan.wma
The band played hymns such as " Just a Little While to Stay Here" and "We Shall Walk Through the Streets of the City" in jazz tempo, until they got to the church. As we went into the church we heard the preacher "shouting the gospel", the sound of the Hammond organ, and the moaning humming sound of the blues. We just were over whelmed by the spirit of "the blues" all around us!
Sound Clip: Download new_orleans_church_service_1968.wma
Once the service was finished the casket was brought out of the church and the band started playing "Just a Closer Walk with Thee". The church bells were ringing and you could hear the sounds of the family crying.
Sound Clip: Download wjf_36.wma
(The song playing in the above sound clip is "Nearer My God to Thee". You can hear the sounds of the family crying in the background)
To Download Windows Media go here...
The band started a funeral procession and there we more funeral marches. Now we understood exactly what Louis Armstrong was trying to express about the beauty of the jazz funerals. The funeral was so sad and so moving that tears started rolling down on our cheeks. The trumpets, tenor sax, and clarinets - the music these jazzmen were playing was their way of expressing their feelings in the roughest, simplest, humblest most "bluesy" way. By the time the procession reached the cemetery, the band was surrounded by two hundred to three hundred African American people, young and old, from little children to people eighty years old. And after "Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust" performed to the the jazz beat of the bass drum, they all started dancing the "Second Line" - A crowd of several hundred were bouncing to the real New Orleans beat played by the band!
Booker T. Bass Drummer
The above photo depicts the Second Line at a Jazz Funeral...
To Be Continued...
To view Part I of "Satchmo & New Orleans Changed the World", go here. To view other stories by Yoshio Toyama, follow this link.
Yoshio Toyama and his wife Keiko apprenticed for 5 years at Preservation Hall in New Orleans, "hanging out" with the likes of Percy Humphrey and "Sweet Emma Barret" Yoshio's playing and singing style is influenced by the musical legacy of the legendary Louis Armstrong. The couple are currently sending musical instruments and donations from Japan to aid in Katrina recovery through their Wonderful World Jazz Foundation.
Copyright, Yoshio Toyama. All Images and sound files are property of Yoshio Toyama and may not be linked to another website, copied, or reproduced without permission.
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