Dirty Dozen Brass Band → Rebirth Brass Band
Connection
Dirty Dozen Brass Band opened the New Orleans brass-band format to bebop, modern jazz, R&B, and funk; Rebirth Brass Band followed that opening and made cyclic funk, rap, contemporary R&B, chant, and street participation even more central.
This is a direct historical influence, not only a sonic resemblance.
Evidence
- Tulane’s Music Rising identifies Dirty Dozen as an immediate musical forebear of Rebirth.
- When Dirty Dozen toured, Rebirth took over work at Daryl’s and the Glass House, placing the younger band in a performance ecology the older band had helped establish.
- Dirty Dozen’s “Blackbird Special” demonstrates the liberated sousaphone and sectional modern-jazz approach; Rebirth’s “Feel Like Funkin’ It Up” converts those freedoms into a more repetitive, chant-ready funk system.
Hear it
- Dirty Dozen Brass Band — “Blackbird Special” — hear bass mobility, sectional counterpoint, and jazz-inflected harmonic motion.
- Rebirth Brass Band — “Feel Like Funkin’ It Up” — hear the sousaphone lock into a durable loop while chant and modular riffs organize the form.
- Dirty Dozen — “Blue Monk” → Rebirth — “Do Whatcha Wanna” — compare harmonically articulated modern jazz with extended participatory vamp.
Limits of the claim
Rebirth is not a derivative version of Dirty Dozen. Both draw on the broader New Orleans brass-band tradition, and Rebirth’s sustained second-line work, youth perspective, hip-hop language, and crowd-centered form are its own solution. “Direct” describes documented influence and shared working ecology, not exclusive causation.