New Orleans Brass Band

New Orleans brass band music is the street music of New Orleans, Louisiana, played by ensembles of trumpets, trombones, clarinets and saxophones over sousaphone bass and two drummers (snare and bass drum) in the city's parades, funerals and second line dances. Descended from nineteenth-century marching bands and codified by groups such as the *Eureka Brass Band* and *Olympia Brass Band*, the tradition absorbed jazz improvisation, gospel, R&B and funk as it passed to the *Dirty Dozen Brass Band* and *Rebirth Brass Band*. It remains a living civic institution, performed outdoors and organized around collective improvisation rather than soloists.