Track Listing

1. Just a Closer Walk With Thee
2. I Shall Not Be Moved
3. Please Let Me Stay a Little Longer
4. What a Friend We Have in Jesus
5. Jesus on the Mainline
6. John the Revelator
7. I'll Fly Away
8. Is There Anybody Here That Loves My Jesus?
9. Down by the Riverside
10. Amazing Grace

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #79384 in Music
• Released on: 2004-05-11
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Album Details
Japanese Release featuring a Bonus Track

Amazon.com
Since 1977, the Dirty Dozen has extended the New Orleans brass band tradition, adding a funk rhythm section and recording with alt-rockers from Elvis Costello to Modest Mouse. But the band has deep roots, and they've never been more apparent than on Funeral for a Friend, a performance that goes to the very core of jazz and New Orleans musical life. Dedicated to one of the band's founders, the late Anthony "Tuba Fats" Lacen, it's a jazz funeral with hymns played at stately dirge tempo en route to the cemetery, then pressed to festive up-tempo counterpoint on the return. The music here pulses with life--and with afterlife too--as the raw R&B force of tenor saxophonist Kevin Harris and baritone saxophonist Roger Lewis energizes traditional tunes like "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" and Blind Willie Johnson's "John the Revelator." On "I Shall Not Be Moved" and "Jesus on the Mainline," the band pushes outward to hypnotic, dense, incantatory jams. Funeral for a Friend is a summary of the Dirty Dozen's greatest strengths, a memorable CD filled with joy and sorrow and real emotional power. --Stuart Broomer

Customer Reviews

Music for life -- and beyond
Dedicated to one of their band mates who died shortly after this CD was recorded, "Funeral For A Friend" is packed with life, love, faith and funk. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band recorded itself as a New Orleans funeral band on this album, mostly without the help of big-name guest stars as on previous CDs.

Not all of the songs are well-known spirituals -- some, like "John the Revelator" and "Jesus on the Mainline" are blues songs. The music is wide open, with enough room for touches of bluesy slide guitar and a taste of Mexican accordion. And the music isn't all slow ... at times it really rocks.

Needless to say, this is the most unique musical offering so far this year and hands down my favorite thing to listen to right now. Far from being a bummer, "Funeral For a Friend" will pick you up and give you a fresh outlook on life. Thanks, DDBB, I needed that.

What I want at my Funeral
I enjoyed this Cd tremendously
i would have preferred the songs were set up like a true New Orleans Jazz Funeral, with the dirges first then the happy up beat songs. But, as it is, it is a recomended CD.

Street Church
As a minister, I enjoy worshiping the God of all creation with music; good music. What I enjoy most about the way the Dirty Dozen Brass Band gang play these old hymns is their laid back-n-loose musical interpretation. No pomp-n-circumstance here.
This is street church all the way.