Analog Impressions

I don’t need to profess my love of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band to regular readers of this blog. The energy, funk, jazz and pure New Orleans vibe of the DDBB is a delight. Many of the records are amazing, but the real thing is to see them live and - as a consequence - the next best thing is to hear them live. We Got Robbed! Live in New Orleans captures the band’s sound and intoxicating fun just right.

We Got Robbed is a raucous celebration of New Orleans Brass that travels through all the staples of the DDBB, old and new. Highlights include the amazingly driven Remember When (see if you don’t dance!) from Open Up, the heavily grooved Unclean Waters (complete with Fire on the Bayou intro) the swinging Use Your Brain and many more. Note, incidentally, that there’s a Japanese limited release of this album that features three more tracks (Blackbird, Snowball and Gemini Rising).

The line-up on this live is pretty darn cool. Beyond the pillars of the band (Roger Lewis on baritone, Efrem Towns on trumpet, Gregory Davis on tenor, Julius McKee on sousaphone and Terrence Higgins on drums), stellar as ever, it features Jamie McLean on electric guitar, and his contribution adds a lot to the mix. As the only “chord” instrument, he gets to drive the moods a lot and his own soloing is very cool.

In other words, if there’s one DDBB album to get, it’s this one!