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The Dirty Dozen Brass Band - What's Going On
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Al Hensley reckons this album is as much a tribute to the people of New Orleans as it is to Marvin Gaye's illustrious musical legacy.
DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND
What's Going On
Shout Factory
For three decades trumpeter Gregory Davis' Dirty Dozen Brass Band has been a mainstay of New Orleans music. Drawing on the city's rich heritage of jazz, blues, soul, funk and R&B, the lineup of two trumpets, two saxes, trombone, sousaphone, guitar and drums is occasionally augmented by keyboards and percussion, such as it is on this brilliant 40-minute reinterpretation of Motown superstar Marvin Gaye's astounding 1971 masterpiece. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina's devastation, the same questions posed by Gaye are just as relevant today, particularly for the DDBB whose members all lost their homes in the hurricane's aftermath.
Mixing four vibrant instrumental pieces with scorching vocal numbers by an impressive array of guests, the DDBB translate the songs from Gaye's silky-smooth original into their own energetic musical language. Public Enemy's Chuck D puts a contemporary perspective on the opening title cut followed by Bettye LaVette's heartfelt 'What's Happening Brother'. Crescent City native Ivan Neville's reading of 'God Is Love' is infused with powerful feelings resulting from his own experiences post Katrina and G. Love's simmering take on 'Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)' reflects the world's uncertain socio-political climate still looming 35 years later.
While these soulful voices carry Gaye's righteous message with profound intensity, the band's dynamic interplay and funky street-beat syncopation is always in focus. In closing this, their creative crowning achievement, the band reworks Gaye's prophetic 'Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler), looking ahead with optimism as Guru raps 'The beauty that is truth will always remain'. With a portion of the album's proceeds benefiting the DDBB's hometown music community, What's Going On is as much a tribute to the people of New Orleans as it is to Gaye's illustrious musical legacy.
Al Hensley