N.O. funerals and “Flee As A Bird”

Jelly Roll Morton’s piano roll of “Dead Man Blues”, quoting “Flee As A Bird” in the intro: MP3.


Played by an Israeli New Orleans band called “The New Orleans Function”:

In this version they let the song roll through the bridge before picking it up with the tune “Didn’t He Ramble.”


Here’s a real-world 2006 funeral procession in New Orleans:


Little known fact: the party funeral was a direct import from Africa that was widely practiced by slaves and eventually evolved into the jazz funeral.


Here’s a really helluva nice example of a real world jazz funeral from 2007. Anybody who gets such a good sendoff is a lucky person.


The song “Flee As A Bird” has also entered classical repertoire. This dude has a killer voice, and if the orchestra is more pompous than strictly necessary how is that a bad thing? “Flee As A Bird” starts at about 2:30 if you want to skip the intro:

One thought on “N.O. funerals and “Flee As A Bird”

  1. Pingback: Some videos relating to funeral music « NO NOTES

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