lent day 4: jazz funeral
i forgot to post an entry yesterday because it ended up being a much crazier day than i anticipated, but that's okay because sundays don't count for lent, so here's the make up.
The first time that I ever knew anything about the jazz funeral philosophy was while i was in Oregon. A friend of a bunch of my high school marching band students died in a car accident and i went to pay my respects. I don't know who made the request, but at the memorial, a new orleans style jazz group played "Saints" in the middle of it, and maybe one other song that was upbeat, and i remember being incredibly confused because the whole thing seemed at odds with the somber mood of the memorial.
It wasn't until years later when i moved to New Orleans that i understood what it was all about, and two days ago was the first time i was ever involved in one - the Green Wave Brass Band was asked to play a second line for a Tulane student that recently committed suicide. It cemented in my mind that when I die I definitely want there to be a live band playing music for the actual funeral, although because it's me, i'd probably want it to be a mixture of all of the sort of music that I hold dear, which would include some IDM and probably 4'33" along with the more traditional jazz funeral ideas. I wonder if my memorial audience would be confused by it.
The first time that I ever knew anything about the jazz funeral philosophy was while i was in Oregon. A friend of a bunch of my high school marching band students died in a car accident and i went to pay my respects. I don't know who made the request, but at the memorial, a new orleans style jazz group played "Saints" in the middle of it, and maybe one other song that was upbeat, and i remember being incredibly confused because the whole thing seemed at odds with the somber mood of the memorial.
It wasn't until years later when i moved to New Orleans that i understood what it was all about, and two days ago was the first time i was ever involved in one - the Green Wave Brass Band was asked to play a second line for a Tulane student that recently committed suicide. It cemented in my mind that when I die I definitely want there to be a live band playing music for the actual funeral, although because it's me, i'd probably want it to be a mixture of all of the sort of music that I hold dear, which would include some IDM and probably 4'33" along with the more traditional jazz funeral ideas. I wonder if my memorial audience would be confused by it.