Synopses & Reviews
Review
andquot;A new essential in the post-Katrina history of New Orleans, Roll With It is, perhaps, the most astute and clear-headed assessment of how the musical essence of New Orleans is ingrained in the personal and political lives of those who live in that extraordinary city. The brass-band culture detailed lovingly here by Matt Sakakeeny is no mere entertainment to those who understand it, nor is it there as tourist-bait or as a museum piece of quaint tradition. This is New Orleans itself, arguing for itself, and using culture as language and currency. To the extent thus far possible, what has saved New Orleansandndash;more than government fiat, or grand economic imperatives, or any hint of functional leadershipsandndash;is in the street, damn near every Sunday afternoon.andquot;
Review
andquot;Matt Sakakeeny tells the story of a vibrant, living culture in prose so vivid and moving, it is matched only by the music about which he writes. His illuminating examination of the contemporary New Orleans brass band culture reveals what it means to create great art, to continually mold and revise a tradition, and to try to make a living under an often dehumanizing racial regimeandmdash;a complex urban world where making music can be a matter of life and death. Roll With It not only opens our ears to the music and its urban echoes, but it opens our eyes, enabling us to finally see the people who make the second line move.andquot;
Review
andldquo;Roll With It, which includes striking black-and-white illustrations by New Orleans artist Willie Birch, is at once celebratory and saddening: a book of personal stories and a highly researched academic work.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Fascinating. . . . The musiciansand#39; personal stories are interwoven with historical information, academic reflection, and personal experience, combining to form a highly original work that creates a vivid portrait both of this musical format and the noble but beleaguered city of New Orleans.andrdquo;and#160;
Review
andldquo;As Sakakeeny makes clear, the story of the cityandrsquo;s brass bands is far more complex than music alone. Beyond its entertainment value, music serves as the andlsquo;site where competing social, political, and economic vectors intersect.andrsquo; In many ways, these vectors serve as a microcosm for the problems within the city at large.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;A notable work in that itandrsquo;s the first critical project to chronicle New Orleansandrsquo; bombastic contemporary brass-band scene, the generation of musicians that grew up with century-old hymns in one ear and hip-hop in the other; also, and importantly, itandrsquo;s a keen, social-justice-minded examination of the turbulent mix of race, economics, culture and tradition in which brass band culture is located.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Sakakeeny offers detailed accounts of parades and the inner workings of the bands. The book offers a full picture of their lives and how the cityandrsquo;s cultural economy works on the factory end. Sakakeeny observes the way the city celebrates its culture and especially its musicians, but the book also exposes the way many of them survive on the same earnings as low-rung service industry workers. Itandrsquo;s an engaging look street-level look at the bands that so often are used to represent and symbolize the city.andrdquo;
Review
andquot;Roll With It is informative on many levels, detailing song structures, jazz history, neighborhood developments, and weaving information together through anecdote and research. It also poses a bigger question: If our city has economically benefitted from selling culture as a post-Katrina resource, are musicians getting what they deserve? Roll With It explores the answer.andrdquo;
Review
“Damn, now that’s musicology. . . . Among the book’s other accomplishments, it’s a model of how to write an academic text that can engage a real-world reader."
Samuel Nelson - Where Y'at?
Review
andquot;Sakakeenyandrsquo;s approach to the tensions between continuity in change in Roll With It: Brass Bands in the Streets of New Orleans, searches past academic theories, tapping many interviews and his own experiences with musicians. . . . Roll With It deserves a wide readership in the post-Katrina boom.andquot;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Review
andldquo;In addition to chronicling groups including the Rebirth Brass Brand, Sakakeeny provides a revealing look at the daily lives of musicians. . . . Detailed profiles of individual musicians make for a captivating narrative, and the book is beautifully illustrated with artwork by New Orleans native Willie Birch.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Damn, now thatandrsquo;s musicology. . . . Among the bookandrsquo;s other accomplishments, itandrsquo;s a model of how to write an academic text that can engage a real-world reader.andquot;
Review
andldquo;Roll With It adds a contemporary perspective to studies of New Orleans culture and music. What emerges from Sakakeenyandrsquo;s book is a portrait of a city that, with all its challenges, still manages to support a vibrant musical culture.andrdquo;and#160;
Synopsis
Roll With It is a firsthand account of the contradictory lives of New Orleans brass-band musicians. They are celebrated as cultural icons within the music scene; outside it, they are treated as faceless black malesand#8212;subject to poverty, racial marginalization, and urban violence.
About the Author
Matt Sakakeeny is an ethnomusicologist and journalist, New Orleans resident and musician. An Assistant Professor of Music at Tulane University, he initially moved to New Orleans to work as a co-producer of the public radio program American Routes. Sakakeeny has written for publications including The Oxford American, Mojo, and Wax Poetics. He plays guitar in the band Los Po-Boy-Citos. Willie Birch is an international artist who lives in New Orleans, where he was born in 1942. Birch received his BA from Southern University New Orleans in 1969 and his MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 1973. He is the recipient of many awards and honors, including the State of Louisiana Governor's award and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. His works are part of the permanent collections of the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Table of Contents
List of Artwork vii
Prologue. Crossing the Threshold ix
Introduction. Forward Motion 1
1. Onward and Upward 13
2. Constraints 69
3. Progressions 109
4. Voices 143
Conclusion. Engagements 179
Afterword. Image and Music in the Art of Willie Burch / Willie Burch and Matt Sakakeeny 187
Acknowledgments 195
Appendix. List of Interviews and Public Events 199
Notes 201
Bibliography 213
Index 227