The Dirty Dozen Brass Band is a New Orleans, Louisiana brass band. The
ensemble was established in 1977 by Benny Jones together with members of the Tornado
Brass Band, and went on to become the best known of the New Orleans-style brass bands.
From the beginning, the music of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band was a departure from the
traditional New Orleans brass band sound, and as the band's popularity increased the distance
between them and more traditional groups only grew. The band was most influential in the
1980s, when they demonstrated that brass band music could successfully move beyond the risk
of being nothing more than a tourist attraction.
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The Dirty Dozen Brass Band's popularity began to take off in 1984. Promoter George Wein booked them on a tour of southern Europe, and when they returned to the United States they secured engagements at two clubs in New York, Tramp's and the Village Gate, where their original short bookings were ultimately extended to six weeks. After a week at home in New Orleans the band travelled to California for four weeks, and before the year was out made three more trips to Europe. In 1984, the band also recorded and released of their first album, My Feet Can't Fail Me Now, on the Concord Jazz label.
In 1986, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band's set at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland was recorded and released as Mardi Gras at Montreux on Rounder Records. The album and the band's touring successes attracted major-label attention, and in 1987 the band signed a contract with Columbia. Their Columbia debut, 1987's Voodoo, featured guest appearances by Dr. John, Dizzy Gillespie and Branford Marsalis. This introduced a trend for the group, and future recordings saw them joined by a variety of special guests including Elvis Costello, DJ Logic, Norah Jones, and Danny Barker. The group has also toured and recorded with jam band Widespread Panic, as well as spending almost all of 1995 as the opening act for The Black Crowes 'Amorica Or Bust' US Tour.
In 1998, after a five-year hiatus from recording, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band switched labels to release Ears To the Wall on Mammoth Records. They followed it up in 1999 with Buck Jump which was produced by John Medeski of Medeski Martin & Wood. Their next album, 2002's Medicated Magic, appeared on Ropeadope, as did their most recent studio release, Funeral for a Friend, which appeared in 2004. Funeral for a Friend represents something of a return to the band's roots: it is a documentation of a New Orleans "funeral with music", the original environment of the brass band form. They appear on the 2005 benefit album A Celebration of New Orleans Music to Benefit MusiCares Hurricane Relief 2005, with the song "Mardi Gras In New Orleans".