New Orleans Music: Instruments

Video Transcript

"One of the things that's very unique about New Orleans is the instrumentation chosen for some of the band line ups and that is deep rooted 120 years in the past. Now, New Orleans always had marching bands, and when that music went from being the Marching Band Music to the more of the swingy hip jazz music, they realized they had to change some of the instrumentation. Now, you couldn't walk around holding an upright Bass, so the Bass line went to the tuba or the suzaphone. And, also the banjo was used quite a bit. So you could go to a place and you could hear a band that consisted of one person playing a bass drum, one person playing a snare drum, a banjo, a ukulele, and a tuba. And, because they were all mobile instruments, this is the type of band that could start at one location and end at another. Which is the concept behind second lining before a wedding or before a funeral where the whole group of people in attendance would go from the church to the bar afterwards, following a band, walking very slowly throughout the streets, making enough noise that they make sure everybody knows what's going on."