DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND feat. IVAN NEVILLE / “God Is Love”
For at least a double-handful of reasons I can’t be no ways objective about this musical statement. There are a lot of Katrina songs out there, but this project got the Crescent City spirit slapped all over its butt. This is a Charity (Hospital) baby!
From the opening downbeat with the sample of mad-mouth Mayor Ray-Ray Nagin, we all get the message that this ain’t going to be nothing nice. When Marvin Gaye recorded this classic music, there was an elegance to it, a sweetness in the melodies and an easy roll in the rhythms. But, you see, this here is “knee-deep” in filthy flood water up to your asshole. The Dozen really got up for this masterful down-stroke.
You know an album got to be funky when the strong-ass vocals are the weakest part. Even rappers Chuck D and Guru sound tame next to these horns. It’s the heavy bottom these Dirty Dozen cats roll with: a sousaphone and a baritone sax. And not just any sousaphone and baritone; we’re talking Kirk Joseph and Roger Lewis.
Kirk’s sousaphone lines rival any combination of electric bass/computer bass. Kirk is as musical as an elephant dancing, and if you ain’t never seen a pachyderm hot-footing it, well, you better ask somebody, cause an elephant is amazingly light on its feet. That kind of nimbleness is how Kirk has pioneered a new way to play the big horn. And he is so musically advanced, he chooses that might never occur to anyone else.
Roger Lewis, in all his sartorial elegance, is both the old man of the band and the most “out” of the horn players. In large part, the success of this document is due to Roger’s directions—the way he holds the ensemble together and the furious solos he takes on baritone and soprano saxophone. I have always been crazy about this cat’s contribution to brass band music.
Which brings me around to my man Gregory “Bloodie” Davis, one of the leaders of the Dirty Dozen. I’ve been knowing these cats for decades, worked with them, marched with them in parades, wrote liner notes for one of the early albums, Live At Montreaux, produced all kinds of shows with them. I'm telling you what I know: Bloodie is the quiet cat who takes care of business. He’s not the flashiest soloist nor even the best composer, but brotherman is absolutely essential to the depth and longevity of the band. He’s the managerial and intellectual gorilla glue that’s kept the band functioning for almost four decades. If you think that's easy, just try it. Try keeping a bunch of folk together for thirty-some years, and you still be sane and they still be talking to each other.
The Dozen is the beginning of modern brass band music in New Orleans. I remember their first hit, “Feet Can’t Fail Me Now.” And now they are dropping a post-Katrina remake of “What’s Going On.” This is dark and brooding music with an uplifting New Orleans bounce and wicked backbeats. But it’s also some wonderful jazz. I don’t mean “jazzy” or “jazz-like.” I mean true jazz with innovative arrangements that take the source music other places and strong solos throughout that let you know these cats are seriously talking with their horns. Plus, they got the street rhythms down to a tee, so no matter the occasion, there is a funk buttressing the feeling.
Originally Gaye was writing about conditions in the Vietnam era and specifically about his brother, a returning vet. The Dozen are dropping their heartfelt feelings about Katrina, so what we get is an interpretation of a message album to deliver a whole other message.
Right quick, I will tell you three things I like: 1. Almost all of the arrangements; 2. Almost all of the horn solos; and 3. Betty LaVette’s angry, snarling lead on “What’s Happening Brother.” She completely misinterprets the lyrics, but what she gets right is the feeling: a razor-sharp anger that is all in the Crescent City air these days. Her attitude is a perfect snapshot of how people be feeling as we fight through our daze of trying to manage what’s left of our city, wrapped up in red-tape, re-flooded with bueracratic bullshit, limping along with broken-down infrastructures, beat up and down by rampant crime, and blighted by pot holes and rats. (Literally. Big ol’ river rats running up and down the streets like it’s carnival time and they is secondliners!) Did I say that Betty’s vocals mis-spoke Gaye’s intentions but perfectly capture our city's conumdrums and contradictions, what we feeling and the anger in our eye as we watch the parade of political bullshit? Just check out the album. It’s all there up in the music.
Give thanx….
—Kalamu ya Salaam
The fighting spirit of our city
This is good music. The more I listen to it, the more I like it. I have a bunch of observations, let's start with the most obvious. First, it’s interesting that the Dirty Dozen, a New Orleans brass band made up of predominately Old School cats (at least in spirit if not in actual age), would both begin and end their tribute to a 35-year-old soul classic with MCs rapping over their music. Of the two, I think Guru did a better job lyrically, while Chuck’s voice and feel is an excellent match for the overall tone of the album. As Kalamu alluded to, the Dozen’s 'what's going on' isn’t asking the same thing Marvin’s question was asking. Marvin’s question was expansive: global, ecological, sociological, philosophical. The Dozen’s question is much more literal. It’s as if they’re taking a look around the city—a city that, one long-ass year later, is still fucked up—and they’re asking, demanding, "WHAT THE #&$*#%(! IS GOING ON?!" As such, Chuck’s angry baritone on the title track is a fitting way to begin the album. Just as fitting is Guru’s melancholic and thoughtful verses on the album-closer, "Inner City Blues." I haven't heard every track Guru’s ever rapped on, but the following verse has to be one of the best of his long career:
Look up in the sky at the constellations
Look into your soul, feel a revelation
Your mind in its most positive state
Will connect with others who equally relate
Planets come together in a peaceful formation
So we can surpass the pain and degradation
Suffering and sacrifice will not be in vain
'Cause the beauty that is true will always remain
It isn’t just the lyrics that make the verse so good, it’s also Guru's tone. The former Gang Starr MC now sounds like a mature grown-up, like an adult. Like a man coming to terms with his place in the world, as opposed to an oversized kid bragging about what he has or what he can do. The only shortcoming of the tune is the annoying self-referentialism of the first verse, which seems out of place with the rest of the lyrics.
As for the other vocal tracks, "God Is Love" is the obvious stand-out. The Dirty Dozen create a massive, yet somehow subdued, instrumental track. Over that, Ivan Neville sings Marvin’s lyrics in a classy, understated wail that brings both emotion and dignity to the proceedings. It’s a great performance of a great song. I can’t honestly say that I'm feeling either of the other two vocal tracks. In the case of Bettye Lavette’s "What's Happening Brother," I just can't get past the strange reinterpretation of the lyrics. The original is a wistful homecoming from Marvin’s brother. Frankie Gaye is just wondering what's been happening for all those years that he lost in the war. Lavette’s confrontational tone may be in keeping with the overall tone of the Dirty Dozen’s message, but with these specific lyrics, it just doesn't fit. And G. Love’s performance on "Mercy Mercy Me" is just plain bad. No further comment necessary.
That leaves us with four instrumental tracks, "Flyin’ High" and "Save The Children" near the top and "Right On" and "Wholy Holy" near the end. All four are brilliant rearrangements of Marvin and Co.’s original compositions. It’s both fun and moving to hear those great melodies and riffs re-imagined and re-played as New Orleans street music. Particularly given everything that’s gone on since last August 29th, I can’t think of a better way to simultaneously celebrate both the fighting spirit of the great city of New Orleans and the crowning achievement of the great soul singer and composer Marvin Gaye than by doing what the Dirty Dozen did here.
—Mtume ya Salaam
This entry was posted on Sunday, September 3rd, 2006 at 1:04 am and is filed under Cover. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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