In the late 1970s, when the Dirty Dozen Brass Band began threading bebop harmonics into New Orleans second-line rhythms, the traditionalists who objected were not entirely wrong. The band was doing something distinctly new. What those critics missed was that this was precisely the move the brass band tradition needed: the Dirty Dozen catalyzed a full renaissance in New Orleans brass music and spent the next four-plus decades putting the genre on stages that would have seemed implausible for a New Orleans second-line band in 1977.
About the Show
The origins trace to a 1970 youth music initiative led by Danny Barker at Fairview Baptist Church, formalizing as the Dirty Dozen Brass Band in 1977 after core members were recruited to play for the Dirty Dozen Social Aid & Pleasure Club. The catalog that followed rewards specific attention. Their 1987 Columbia Records debut, Voodoo, drew Branford Marsalis, Dr. John, and Dizzy Gillespie as collaborators — jazz royalty aligned with the New Orleans brass tradition. But the range doesn’t stop at jazz: listed collaborators include David Bowie, Elvis Costello, Norah Jones, and Widespread Panic, a spread that reflects the band’s own description of their sound as a “musical gumbo” of bebop, funk, and R&B/soul. What’s Going On (2006), a reinterpretation of Marvin Gaye’s landmark album, arrived in the specific weight of post-Katrina New Orleans, functioning as critique as much as tribute. In 2022, the band earned a Grammy Award for Best American Roots Performance alongside Aaron Neville for “Stompin’ Ground,” from the documentary Take Me to the River: New Orleans. The current lineup (Roger Lewis, Gregory Davis, Kirk Joseph, Trevarri Huff-Boone, Stephen Walker, Julian Addison, and Takeshi Shimmura) is mid-fall run, following stops at Geneva’s Smith Opera House on November 5 and Sellersville Theater in Pennsylvania on November 10. The run closes November 28 at Tipitina’s in New Orleans, the room that hosted the pivotal 1982 performance that first elevated the band beyond local circuits.
Venue & Logistics
Paramount Hudson Valley in Peekskill is a 1,024-seat theater — a notably contained room for a band that has performed across more than 30 countries. For a brass ensemble of this scale, a room this size delivers the music directly rather than letting it dissipate into the air. The show is Friday, November 13, at 8:00 p.m. in the Hudson Valley. The Paramount’s box office is open Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday 9 a.m.–2 p.m.; Thursday 9 a.m.–2 p.m. and 3:30–6 p.m.; and on show day from noon to showtime. Contact: 914-739-0039 or boxoffice@paramounthudsonvalley.com.
Tickets
Tickets are priced at $44, $54, and $58.50. Buy tickets