"Caribbean Second Line" - New Birth Brass Band

“Caribbean Second Line” (PDF) from the New Birth Brass Band album D-Boy.

In addition to Caribbean rhythms, the most significant influence on New Orleans was the protest music created by kidnapped African slaves working throughout the European colonies. Similarly, the adoption of Carnival traditions as a celebration of emancipation influenced the second-line culture of New Orleans by utilizing parade music to speak truth to power and demonstrate strength in numbers. As musicologist Matt Sakakeeny notes in his book Roll With It, “occupying city streets through black cultural traditions articulates a right to the city.”

This trombone solo firmly holds its place within the space of a major-sixth interval, from A-flat to F, with the exception of the high D-flat that acts as more of a shout or exclamation. The use of the blues scale provides a vocalized quality to its phrasing, the product of physically expressing the syncopated rhythmic figures that are present throughout the solo. Likewise, the use of the 9th (C) and 11th (E-flat) create melodic tension that separates itself from the background harmony… which also accounts for the use of the 13th (G) in bar 17 that I almost forgot about. Good eye, kid! Good eye.

Here’s a YouTube video from Deborah “Big Red” Cotton of the Baby Boyz Brass Band & Baby Girls Dancers, featuring a trombone solo by Glen David Andrews:

Recommended reading: Roll With It: Brass Bands in the Streets of New Orleans by Matt Sakakeeny. Published by Duke University Press.