Traditions Resurrected
Submitted By N.O.V.A. July 2005
Times Picayune 08-29-1997


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When jazz great Danny Barker died three years ago, he specifically requested that
he not be given a jazz funeral. It's not difficult to understand why.

These days tourists treat funerals as mere photo opportunities. Second liners
abandon all funereal solemnity.

"Danny said he didn't want a second line because the young people disrespect the
deceased and the family of the deceased," said Fred Johnson, 43.

Blue Lu Barker, Danny's widow, was all set to concur with her husband's wishes.
But then a group of young men, many of whom had been taught to play by Barker,
appealed to her.

"I just felt we had to give back to him what he gave to us," said Greg Stafford, a
44-year-old trumpeter and a mainstay of Barker's group, the Jazz Hounds.

They promised that the funeral would be conducted in the same dignified fashion in
which Barker lived his life.

Both the musicians and the parade marshals would be dressed in attire befitting
the occasion. The music would be the somber hymns and joyful marches of the old
brass band repertoire.

*** Death brings rebirth ***

Like his life, Barker's death proved to be a catalyst.

Energized by the beauty and power of the funeral, Johnson, Stafford, Benny Jones
Sr. and several other men decided that they would organize a parade.

The event they envisioned would recapture the feeling of parades they enjoyed in
their youth.

They chose to call their group Black Men of Labor in the hope that the name itself
would conjure memories of the old days when the longshoremen held an annual Labor
Day parade.

In these times, when black men are often perceived as criminals and predators,
they thought that organizing a group of working, responsible black men would in
and of itself be a counterstatement to such stereotypical assumptions.

At the center of their vision for this event were the music and the musicians.
They would require that the musicians wear hats and ties, as in the old days.

And rather than the modern incarnation of brass band music, the Black Men of Labor
would require a sound reminiscent of what brass bands played in the '60s and '70s.

"I always say the music is what dictates how the crowd is going to act," Stafford
said. "Lately the tempos have been stepped up. That causes dancers to move more
frantically."

"If the tempo of the music is wild and crazy and neurotic, the people act wild and
crazy and neurotic," Johnson added.

To encourage the musicians to play the older music, the group elected to pay them
nearly $200 each, roughly twice the usual rate.

*** Fourth parade ***

The organization will hit the streets for the fourth time this Sunday. Dressed in
their custom-designed costumes of African cloth, with fans and umbrellas to match,
they will be a sight to see.

And accompanied by a group of musicians committed to playing in a more traditional
style than is generally heard today, they will be also be a sight to hear.

The Black Men of Labor parade will begin at 9 a.m. Sunday with a church service at
St. Peter Claver. At 1 p.m. the parade will begin at Lorraine's Dugout, 1931 St.
Claude Ave. It will continue through Treme, making stops at several lounges
including Donna's (800 N. Rampart), Little People's Place (Barracks Street between
Treme and St. Claude streets) and Lucky Star/Sudan (St. Bernard Avenue and North
Robertson Street.)