LITTLE ROCK — Roger Lewis is ironing his clothes in a Washington, D.C., area hotel room when reached via telephone. I know this because he tells me. The 68-year-old baritone sax player for the Dirty Dozen Brass Band lives by a set of rules learned over a musical career that started as an 11-year-old playing in New Orleans barrooms.
"Want to look good, want to look good. Always got to look good on stage," Lewis says.
It's a rule. Write it down.
It's an off day for the musician, and the lunch hour finds him "chilling." That's his word. He also says "cat" when describing a person. It's the speech of a longtime jazz artist.
The band is between gigs in Northern Virginia and New Jersey, and Lewis is spending his time tidying his clothes and practicing some new sax lines fellow band member and tenor saxophone player Kevin Harris has written. Lewis, in his gentle New Orleans accent, points out he has time to chat. And, he is quick to point out, "I like talking."
Fifty-two minutes later, Lewis will have examined a range of topics, from playing with Fats Domino in the early '70s to Lewis' 11-year-old daughter painting Lewis' face on a squash and e-mailing a picture of it to dozens of friends and family members. It's a playful reminder from daughter to father to stay slim. Lewis takes karate with his daughter. He tries to fight a "little bit of a bulge, a little bit of a belly."
He talks of Kidd Jordan's "sound of life" music, the ability of the saxophonist and New Orleans music educator's ability to mimic a refrigerator's buzzing hum or a bird's whistle; and sliding across the sawdust floors of the barrooms and strolling the bar as a preteen, showboating and learning jazz before puberty even hit.
"[The owners] wanted you to walk the bar and kick over the drinks so they could sell more drinks," said Lewis of those early days in the '50s. "We'd do all kinds of stuff. People wanted to be entertained. We'd come out and play jazz, or what we called ourselves playing jazz. We were kids."
Although his musical career stretches back to the early '50s, and includes backing up legends such as Big Joe Turner ("A big ol' dude with big eyes who sang everything in the key of C."), Irma Thomas and Domino, since 1977, Lewis has been a member of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, a collection of New Orleans musicians originally formed as the Original Sixth Ward Dirty Dozen Brass Band in the Treme neighborhood of the Crescent City. The seven members — there was never a dozen — mixed the jubilant brass band sound of second line music with funk, soul, modern jazz and bebop to create their innovative romps and high-energy performances. Since the release of their debut My Feet Can't Fail Me Now in 1984, the Dirty Dozen have released a series of albums of their revolutionary brass band sound; recording and touring with artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, Elvis Costello, Branford Marsalis, The Black Crowes, Modest Mouse and Widespread Panic.
Having caught the band a few times live, one word can be used to describe the experience: joyous. If New Orleans appreciates how to celebrate life better than any North American city; the Dirty Dozen Brass Band appreciates how to celebrate music better than any North American musical act. From beginning to end, the two-hour experience serves as a revival of the soul. It's a wild, exuberant ride. Pure bliss.
When a man like Lewis talks, you listen. Try to soak it all in. Here's some of what Lewis touched upon:
On playing the St. Petersburg Day Festival in front of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia, in May
It was great. Wonderful. In fact, they want us to come back next year. There's something about this New Orleans music, man, that people just love. I guess it's the gospel in the music, you know?
On the appeal of New Orleans music
It's the feeling and the spirit that we have in New Orleans music that people just love. ... It’s the feeling of the music, man. That's the best way I can describe it. What's else is music besides a feeling? Basically it's a feeling. That's all music is. People just love New Orleans music. The only thing about it is the lack of proper exposure for the music. Other music gets promoted on the air; we don't get that kind of exposure. If New Orleans music would get that kind of exposure it'd be just as great as any other kind of music that is out there.
On the reaction of traditional New Orleans brass bands when the Dirty Dozen first started
When we first came out ... we wanted to play all the music we loved and bring it to the street and try different songs on the street, and it caught on and people loved it. Some of the older guys in the traditional brass bands tried to tell us we weren't playing traditional music. What they don't remember is we were playing traditional music too, but we were playing the sounds of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Jimmy Forrest, Michael Jackson and anybody we could think of that we liked. We were playing all of that, too. Then we were playing a lot of original material. People were enjoying it. They were having a good time with it. We probably had some of the biggest second lines in the history of second line music. There's always going to be somebody not liking what you are doing. We just kept on doing it, and we've been together for about 30 years, going all over and spreading the joy. It's all New Orleans music cause we from New Orleans. I guess you always going to get static. I guess back in the day when Louis Armstrong was playing the kind of music he was playing he heard it too. You just keep on doing it.
On the band's musical friends
Playing with [The Black] Crowes, and Widespread Panic, and Modest Mouse and Dave Matthews [Band] and Elvis Costello. All these artists gave us stories to tell and a new audience. It's helped our career tremendously and deliver our style of music to a younger audience.
On playing with the Dirty Dozen
Being part owner of this band I can play what I want to play. I don't care what it is. From anywhere to Beethoven to free jazz and avant-garde to whatever. Everyone in the band has an opportunity to do whatever they want to do — to play what they want to play. You don't get that in a lot of bands. Where they are open-minded. It keeps it interesting for the members of the band. You have an opportunity, if you have a song you've made up and want to get it played, you can bring it to the band and people will work with you on it. It’s a beautiful thing.
On first playing the saxophone
[My mother] wanted me to play in the church because she's a church-going woman. I played the piano for a little while but never got to the level where I could really play it in church. I could read music at that time. Daddy bought him a tenor sax and that opened the door.
On his mother's reaction to his playing barrooms at a young age
She didn't really give me any static about it because I was doing something positive. I was doing something positive so my parents didn't mind. They were actually kind of proud of me because their investment didn't go to waste.
On keeping music fresh after 57 years
For me, music is always music to me. Every day I play my instrument. Every time I pick up the horn I learn something knew. It's always fresh and new to me. I never stop learning. You surround yourself with musicians, and you learn from them. Even today.
All these guys have their thing they do, and they do it well, and it keeps it fresh for me. Just being around the cats in the band; I'm like a sponge. I'm always learning musical ideas just from the guys I'm playing with. It keeps it fresh for me.
On always learning as a musician
I learned this from playing with Fats Domino and it's a very important lesson musicians should learn: When I joined that band I'm playing Fats Domino's music. Every night. The same song every night. But every time I played those songs with this man I tried to play it better than I did the night before, and figure out other things I can do to enhance the music. So I was never bored. I was having a ball every night. I was like, "Oh, wow! I can do this!' I could use different techniques to play the same riff but a better way. It kept it fresh for me. I don't get bored playing music cause I'm learning something every time I play my instrument that I didn't know. It's always fresh to me. Me playing music is like always starting from the beginning.
On the Deep Horizon oil spill
What's going on? That's a good question. What is really going on? Who's lying to who and why? Who's making all these decisions? Who is really pulling the strings? Big business controls what goes on. What the hell is really going on? We don't really even know.
On his love of music
I love music. I think everybody and everybody's family should play some kind of musical instrument. It really helps a lot. What would this world be without music? Man, it would be a sad, sad day without music. Music is everywhere. The birds sing everyday.
And, almost 48 minutes into the conversation, the closing statement, on the magic of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band
Avant-garde music — we were playing all that kind of music. We still do that. We still go to space. We go where man has never gone before. You got to fit it in where people can kind of relate somewhat. Dirty Dozen — We try to bring a little peace and happiness to everybody's life when we play music. I always say we are messengers. That's our God gift and that's our job to do. We try to play good music, and we try to entertain folks. We want people to have a good time and enjoy the show when they come out. Just have a good time. We gonna have a ball.
See the show:
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, New Orleans' original brass band crossed with funk and bebop, returns to Little Rock with a Saturday show at Sticky Fingerz. The opening act is to be announced, but expect the music at 8:30 p.m. with tickets $15 for the 21-and-up show.