The Musical Box

There just seems to be something about New Orleans music that makes the dreariest of occasions seem like a carnival. True to its hometown form, the Crescent City’s famed Dirty Dozen Brass Band returned to The Dame last night packing abundant summertime cheer. And with a mere 11 days to go before the club, at least in its current Main St. location, shuts down, such a sunny, earthy sound was especially welcome.

The scene was something of a repeat from the late spring of 2002. That’s when Lynagh’s Music Club, then Lexington’s foremost club venue, closed. The Dirty Dozen played there in those final weeks, as well. But last night’s program made for a more stylistically broad minded party.

Sure, all the instrumental elements were in abundance. A front line of saxophone, trumpet and trombone carried, mutated and ripped open melodies while bass was played not by fingers on strings but by human breath blown into that mightiest of brass beasts, the sousaphone.

But the performance’s musical reference points embraced early ‘70s soul and funk as much as they did New Orleans tradition.

A tasty, percussive Fiyo on the Bayou, for example, set the stage for some Norman Whitfield-era Temptations inspiration. After bleeding again into Unclean Waters, the Dirty Dozen turned to a summery splash of 1973-era Sly and the Family Stone before the lengthy, exhaustive jam settled down.

Similarly soulful was What’s Going On, which deviated from both Marvin Gaye’s spiritually driven original and the topically inclined remake the Dirty Dozen cut in 2006 with Public Enemy’s Chuck D. This workout was fueled by wah-wah guitar turbulence and giddy exchanges between baritone saxophonist Roger Lewis, tenor sax man Kevin Harris and Efrem Towns, who played trumpet and flugelhorn (sometimes simultaneously). A later exploration of Steve Wonder’s Superstition offered less invention but sounded equally festive.

No, none it made you forget The Dame was well into its final chorus as a downtown music venue. But with the Dirty Dozen onstage, that dire tune managed, for a few hours, to sound a lot sweeter.