The Dirty Dozen Brass Band - What's Going on

Release date 2006

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band have never ceased to surprise, for better or worse, on their recordings. In 2004 they took their sound all the way back to its roots to pay tribute to deceased founding member Anthony "Tuba Fats" Lacen who passed away just a few weeks after the album was completed. They reenacted a complete New Orleans homecoming (funeral) for a dear friend and colleague. There was no Dirty Dozen record in 2005, Hurricane Katrina took care of that.

In 2006, exactly a year after the event, in the aftermath of a vicious natural disaster that displayed the incompetence of the Crescent City's infrastructure, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Federal Government, they addressed the tragedy in the only way they know how, by re-creating the same kind of bewilderment and anger that Marvin Gaye felt and witnessed in 1971 by issuing their own take on Gaye's classic album What's Goin' On. This is a question that is proved all the more poignant given the efforts of an entire region trying not only to rebuild homes and businesses, but trying to preserve a culture as this recording was released.

The Dirty Dozen recruit a number of vocalists to help out on the hinge tunes. The samples of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's voice in the aftermath of the hurricane usher in the brass slip-sliding along the dark funky overtones of Gaye's signature tune. Guitarists Doug Bossi and Ben Keeler dig into the groove, as does drummer Terence Higgins and keyboardist/producer Anthony Marinelli, as Chuck D raps the refrain in the context of modern history, the disaster, and the ineptitude and even hostility of a government who wages war and ignores domestic problems.

It's a news report from the front lines as the horns cut the melody, the harmony, and the deep, steamy funk groove. "What's Happening Brother," closes the funk from the inside, turning the groove back in on itself not only playing the rage, but echoing it in the grain of Bettye LaVette's vocal, which dares to spit out the truth with questions and observations in the pain of a first person narrative. The airy arrangement of "Flyin' High (In the Friendly Sky)" is nearly mournful, nostalgic for a more innocent time, but is all the more poignant for that longing. The deep tribal drums Mardi Gras Indian-style, with the skronky saxophones, tight guitar groove, and screaming narrative in "Save the Children" give way to the smoothness of Gaye's melody, but the sound comes through the ether and street struggles past, presupposing a new war in the present and future. It's a bewildered tune, sad with undercurrents of rage.

AllMusic Review by Thom Jurek