Dirty Dozen Brass Band (Photo by Chris Monaghan)

Formed in 1977 by Benny Jones, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. The New Orleans collective is on tour with a stop at the State Theatre in Falls Church, Virginia, on Saturday, Dec. 30

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band gave new life to traditional brass bands upon its formation 40 years ago by fusing jazz and bebop into its big brass sound. Helmed today by Gregory Davis on trumpet and vocals, the band consists of six additional full-time members: Roger Lewis (baritone, soprano sax), Kevin Harris (tenor saxophone), Terence Higgins (drums), Takeshi Shimmura (guitar), Efrem Towns (trumpet, flugelhorn), and Kirk Joseph (Sousaphone).

Earlier this years, the gents visited Bob Boilen in DC and performed an NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert. They played “Use Your Brain” from 1991’s Open Up (Whatcha Gonna Do for the Rest of Your Life?), “Best of All” from 2012’s Twenty Dozen (their most recent commercial album), “Tomorrow” also from Twenty Dozen, and more.

Watch the NPR Tiny Desk Concert with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band from Feb. 28, 2017, on YouTube:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXr3nrd33U0]

Gregory describes the band’s sound on their website: “It ends up being like a pot of gumbo — you drop in a little okra, drop in a little shrimp, you drop in some crabs. Before you know it, you’ve mixed in all these different ingredients and you’ve got a beautiful soup. That was our approach to music early on and it still is today.”

Sounds like that soup will cure whatever ails you! We cannot think of a better way to celebrate the end of the year than with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band! Buy your tickets online.

Dirty Dozen Brass Band
The State Theatre
(Falls Church, Virginia)
Saturday, Dec. 30
Show @ 7pm
$27
18+