What is a Jazz Funeral?

In New Orleans, when a member of a traditional African-American or Creole community dies, friends, family, and even strangers participate in a unique cultural celebration, a Jazz funeral. Musicians and friends gather at the family home to mourn and to offer help during this difficult time. In the morning, after a short service at the funeral home, the body is transferred to the church in a solemn walking procession. On this march, a brass band plays Gospel dirges, such as Just A Closer Walk With Thee. The brass band leads the procession with a sad, almost moaning tone, drums setting the cadence until the Grand Marshall (bandleader) leads them into the church.

At the church the brass band and a Social Aid and Pleasure Club Honor Guard (a fraternal group to which the deceased belonged) line up on each side of the steps. Pallbearers carry the casket past the brass band and honor guard into the church, where friends of the deceased, members of the fraternal or social organization, families and people from the community have congregated. The service proceeds with eulogies, hymns, testimonies, and prayers. Toward the end of the service the musicians come in and play their eulogy as they pass slowly by the coffin. Musicians lead the procession out of the church. By the time the church service ends, hundreds more people have gathered in the street.

After the body is cut away (buried), the mood of the parade changes from sadness to celebration. The brass band breaks into Jazz and plays the favorite tunes of the deceased. The band picks up the tempo and move to the syncopations of the music in a style unique to New Orleans. It may be traditional Gospel tunes jazzed up. The up tempo music is intended to make the relatives and friends cast off their sadness. And the people along the streets dance to the music. The Jazz played after a New Orleans funeral doesn't show any lack of respect for the person being buried, it rather shows the people that the deceased wants them to be happy. In these funeral processions are the roots of jazz and the continuation of a tradition in which life is affirmed after death is honored.