jazz funeral
New Orleans sendoff
A jazz funeral is a New Orleans tradition combining mourning with celebration.
A brass band accompanies the procession from church to cemetery, playing solemn hymns.
After burial, the music shifts to upbeat jazz as mourners dance through the streets—the "second line"—celebrating the deceased's passage to the afterlife.
They gave him a proper jazz funeral with a parade down Bourbon Street.
Supporting vocal line
- brass bandHorn and percussion ensemble
- French QuarterHistoric New Orleans neighborhood
- Crescent CityNew Orleans nickname
- Louis ArmstrongPioneering jazz trumpeter, singer
Dixieland · Bourbon Street · Zulu · Dirty Dozen · shotgun house · ward · uptown
Supporting vocal line
- rejoicingFeeling or showing triumph
- dancingRhythmic bodily motion
- parasolHandheld shade device
- handkerchiefPocket cloth for sniffles
feathers · upbeat · joyful · revelry · festive · lively · umbrella · high-stepping
Formal moving line
- dirgeMournful commemorative music
- cortegeCeremonial attendant procession
- hearseVehicle transporting caskets
- pallbearerFuneral coffin transporter
casket · graveside · interment · eulogy · wake · hymn · deceased · mourner
Horn and percussion ensemble
- trumpetValved brass wind instrument
- tromboneSlide-operated brass instrument
- tubaLowest brass instrument
- snare drumTensioned wire percussion cylinder
clarinet · sousaphone · improvisation · dirge · hymn · swing · syncopation · Amazing Grace
Of one's forebears
- spiritualRelating to the soul
- West AfricanFrom Africa's western bulge
- call and responseAlternating vocal pattern
- YorubaNigerian people and language
syncretic · Catholic · voodoo · enslaved · freedom · transcendence · communal · oral tradition
second line
Supporting vocal line
- brass bandHorn and percussion ensemble
- French QuarterHistoric New Orleans neighborhood
- Crescent CityNew Orleans nickname
Louis Armstrong · Dixieland · Bourbon Street · Zulu · Dirty Dozen · shotgun house · ward · uptown
second line
Supporting vocal line
handkerchief · feathers · upbeat · joyful · revelry · festive · lively · umbrella · high-stepping · jubilant
procession
Formal moving line
- dirgeMournful commemorative music
- cortegeCeremonial attendant procession
- hearseVehicle transporting caskets
pallbearer · casket · graveside · interment · eulogy · wake · hymn · deceased · mourner · cemetery
brass band
Horn and percussion ensemble
- trumpetValved brass wind instrument
- tromboneSlide-operated brass instrument
- tubaLowest brass instrument
snare drum · clarinet · sousaphone · improvisation · dirge · hymn · swing · syncopation · Amazing Grace · slow tempo
ancestral
Of one's forebears
- spiritualRelating to the soul
- West AfricanFrom Africa's western bulge
- call and responseAlternating vocal pattern
Yoruba · syncretic · Catholic · voodoo · enslaved · freedom · transcendence · communal · oral tradition · Benin
- funeral customsburial, cremation, casket, mourning, wakes
- New OrleansFrench Quarter, Bourbon Street, Mardi Gras, Jackson Square, gumbo
- Early JazzDixieland, ragtime, Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, cornet
- funeral ritesbury, burial, burial rites, entomb, cremation
- Louisiana MusicCajun, zydeco, Cajun music, Creole music, second line
- African diasporaSanteria, Vodou, orisha, orishas, ancestor veneration