UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Second Line: A (Re)Conceptualization of the New Orleans Brass Band Tradition Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/09z2z2d7 Author GASPARD BOLIN, MARC TIMOTHY Publication Date 2021 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles The Second Line: A (Re)Conceptualization of the New Orleans Brass Band Tradition A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnomusicology by Marc Timothy Gaspard Bolin 2021 i © Copyright by Marc Timothy Gaspard Bolin 2021 i ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Second Line: A (Re)Conceptualization of the New Orleans Brass Band Tradition by Marc Timothy Gaspard Bolin Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnomusicology University of California, Los Angeles, 2021 Professor Cheryl L. Keyes, Chair In New Orleans, Louisiana, nearly every occasion is marked with a celebratory parade, most famously the Mardi Gras processions that seemingly take over the city during Carnival Time. But throughout the year, there are jazz funerals and parades known as "second lines" that fill the Backatown neighborhoods of New Orleans, with the jubilant sounds of brass band music. These peripatetic parades and their accompanying brass bands have become symbolic of New Orleans and its association with social norm-breaking and hedonistic behavior. The second line constitutes cultural practice and group identification for practitioners serving as a site for spiritual practice and renewal. In Los Angeles, California, practitioners are transposing the second line, out of which comes new modes of expression, identities, meanings, and theology. Drawing from nearly seven years of ethnomusicological fieldwork and archival research in two vastly different urban landscapes, this dissertation explores the brass band milieu and its central ritual, the second line, through an examination of the communities that sustain them in New ii Orleans and Los Angeles. This dissertation argues that the second line is a deeply rooted, multi- faceted, and community-based tradition, from which practitioners gain strength, healing, and spiritual renewal that transcends the mundane and crosses the boundaries of time, space, culture, and domain. The brass band is largely lacking in jazz scholarship. This dissertation represents a critique of the existing literature that perpetuates European hegemony, obfuscates the presence and importance of non-Europeans within jazz, discounts the collective beliefs of New Orleans community members in favor of data-driven research, and fails to recognize brass band as a living, continuing jazz tradition. Because the brass band is so firmly rooted in the visual, sonic, and narrative stereotypes of amateurism, essentialized notions, and poverty, I utilize filmmaking throughout my dissertation as an integral component and sensorial mode of inquiry as a means to construct new visual and sensory ways of knowing second line culture. iii The dissertation of Marc T. Gaspard Bolin is approved. Mark L. Kligman Ali J. Racy Aparna Sharma Cheryl L. Keyes, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2021 iv To the memory of Raymond G. Bogart, James Samuel Pilafian, Gilbert Ronald Pumphry, and Judith Lee Jurisich. v Table of Contents Abstract of the Dissertation ii List of Figures x List of Examples xiv Acknowledgements xv Vita xix Introduction Part I: The Study 1 Setting the Scene 1 The Study 15 Literature Review 17 Early Jazz and Brass Band Studies 18 Jazz Historiography 19 Louisiana and New Orleans-Specific Histories 22 Community Scholarship 24 Second Line Ethnographies 30 Culture as Process: Adaptive Cultural Strategy 31 Religion 34 Brass Band, Street Culture, and Black Mardi Gras Indian Film Studies 35 Original Contribution and Organization of the Dissertation 38 Introduction Part II: Methodological and Theoretical Approaches 41 Research and Expanding My Methodological Toolkit 42 Fieldwork in My Backyard: Los Angeles 42 New Fieldwork and Sensory Ethnography 49 Participant-Observation and Co-Participation 50 Personal Interviews 51 Notetaking 52 Filmmaking Practices: Sensory Ethnography 53 The Thin Line 57 New Orleans 59 Co-Participation in New Orleans 64 Interviewing Techniques in New Orleans 64 Notetaking in New Orleans: Technological Advancements 66 Filmmaking in New Orleans 67 Theoretical Approaches 68 The Use of Film in My Study 69 Gilroy's Black Atlantic and Keyes’ "Reversioning" 72 The Second Line as Secular Religion 72 Prelude: Revisionist Histories: Black Mardi Gras Indians, Gens de Couleur Libres, 75 and the Brass Band Chapter 1: Black Mardi Gras Indians: Their History, Musical Influence, and 82 Audio Legacy vi Early Cultures in the Lower Meshassepi Valley Region 85 Native American Enslavement 88 Abducted Africans Introduced to Louisiana 90 Marronage and Resistance 94 Mardi Gras Indians 97 Colonial Notions of Race in Louisiana 97 Mardi Gras 100 Origins of the Mardi Gras Indians 102 Mardi Gras Indian Musical Practices 105 Gumbo: Intersectionality and Musicocultural Expressions of Congo Square 110 The Ring Shout 113 The Common Culture of Congo Square 115 Mardi Gras Indian Musical Influence and Audio Legacy 118 Contemporary Collaborations: Mardi Gras Indians and Brass Bands 130 To Be Continued 131 Wrap Up 138 Chapter 2: The Public Music-Making of People of Color in Early New Orleans 141 The Musical Environment of New Orleans in the Antebellum 143 Congo Square 143 Origins of the Myth of Congo Square 145 Locating Congo Square 148 Musical Activities Beyond Congo Square 157 Creole Musicking in the Antebellum 158 Militias and Early Brass Band Formations 161 Benevolent Societies and Leisure Spaces 167 Sites of Leisure 168 The "Promenade Concert" of 1864 172 Postbellum Musical Environment 174 Wrap Up 176 Interlude I: My Brother’s Keeper 178 Filmmaking and the New Orleans Second Line 178 Sensory Ethnography: Filmmaking 179 Production, Collaboration, and Postproduction 183 An Invitation to Film 186 Chapter 3: The Brief Précis of the New Orleans Brass Band 191 The Role of the Black Church in NOLA 193 Benevolent Associations and Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs 197 The Effect of Jim Crow Laws 201 The Early 20th Century 203 The Golden Age of Brass Bands 203 The Embrace of Ragtime and the Popularization of Black Improvised Music 206 New Orleans Jazz 210 The Jazz Age and Early Brass Band Recordings 216 The Young Tuxedo Brass Band, 1958 222 vii Ambassadors: Preservation Hall and the Olympia Brass Band 228 Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band 233 A New Generation 236 The Hurricane Brass Band 236 The Tornado Brass Band 239 The Dirty Dozen Brass Band 240 The Brass Band Renaissance 242 Rebirth 242 The Soul Rebels Brass Band 247 Contemporary Brass Bands 249 Chapter Conclusions 251 Interlude II: Can’t Take Our Spirit 254 Filmmaking and the Los Angeles Second Line 254 Nine Years in the Making 256 Chapter 4: From New Orleans to Los Angeles 259 Setting the Scene 262 Critical Brass 265 The Krewe of Grandview 268 The Mudbug Brass Band 273 Events in Los Angeles 276 Jazz Funerals 276 Jazz Weddings 279 Community Second Lines in Los Angeles 279 Crawfish Boils, Fund Raisers, and Corporate Events 282 Clubs and Restaurants 283 Industry Gigs 285 Television Appearances 286 Mardi Gras Parades 287 The Second Line as Secular Religion 289 Conversion 290 Baptism 292 Commitment and Proselytization 292 The Constitutive Role of Common Symbols and Ritual 296 The Structural Elements of the Second Line 297 Second Line Music in LA: How Music Brings It All Together 299 Original/Hybrid Music-Making 302 Wrap Up 311 Epilogue: Traversing the Boundaries of Time, Space, and Domain 313 Conclusions 313 Future Implications of the Second Line 318 Final Thoughts 321 viii Appendix I: Brief Overview of Ethnography 322 Appendix II: Common Drum Pattern Transcriptions 326 Appendix III: "Sustain the Chain (buck it)," Lyrics 329 Appendix IV: "Are You with Me," Lyrics 331 Works Cited 332 ix List of Figures Introduction Part I Figure 0.1.1 Dirty Dozen Brass Band at the Independent, San Francisco, CA. 6 Foreground; left to right: Efrem Townes, Kevin Harris, Roger Lewis, Jamie McLean. Background; left to right: Kirk Joseph, Terence Higgins. Photo courtesy of Bill "Swerbo" Swerbenski, a.k.a., BayTaper. Figure 0.1.2 Co-founders of the Krewe of Grandview, Johann Stein (far left), 9 and Miss Jessica Long (center), at the 2014 Venice Beach Mardi Gras Parade. Figure 0.1.3 Mosiah "Mosi" Chartock and Alvin "Lil Al" Coco at the Original 13 CTC Steppers Social Aid & Pleasure Club Second Line Parade, Sunday, February 10, 2019. Introduction Part II Figure 0.2.1 Facebook post, October 19, 2018, 11:59 A.M. 63 Figure 0.2.2 My first Sunday second line as a co-participant, performing with 65 an ad-hoc brass band for the Lower Nine Steppers Social Aid and Pleasure Club at the Big Nine Second Line Parade, Sunday, December 16, 2018. Background; left to right: Marc Francis (trombone), Marc T. Bolin (sousaphone), Daimon Kenard Thomas (trombone), a tired Mosiah "Mosi" Chartok (trombone), Seth Bailin (tenor saxophone), Emanuel Mitchell (trumpet, white hoodie), Blake McCarter (sousaphone, only bell is visible). Center: unknown member, Lower Nine Steppers Social Aid and Pleasure Club. Photo courtesy of Jonas Chartok. Figure 0.2.3 Brenard "Bunny" Adams playing my sousaphone at a recording session, 69 TBC Brass band, December 17, 2018. Brenard "Bunny" Adams, sousaphone. Chapter 1 Figure 1.1 Flag Boy, Golden Eagles, Super Sunday, March 30, 2018. 86 Figure 1.2 Closeup of "Wildman" Byron Vallery's intricate beadwork, left arm 104 panel, Super Sunday, March 30, 2018. Figure 1.3 Spy Boy Floyd Edwards of the Golden Eagles, Super Sunday, 106 March 30, 2018. Figure 1.4 Chief Scout Mosiah "Mosi" Chartock, Mardi Gras Day, Tuesday, 107 March 5, 2019. x Figure 1.5 J'Wan Boudreaux of the Golden Eagles and Cha Wa rehearsing 135 "M B K," TBC recording session, December 17, 2018.