Dirty Dozen Brass Band Ushers In 2026
At SFJAZZ, the veteran New Orleans ensemble transformed an early New Year’s Eve show into a full-bodied communal ritual—part funk revue, part brass-band sermon, and part countdown celebration—affirming their role as both tradition-bearers and restless modernizers.
The New Year’s Eve ritual began before the band took the stage. As audiences entered Miner Auditorium, ushers offered complimentary sparkling wine, festive hats, and noisemakers—small cues that framed the evening as a shared civic event. Many in attendance were dressed for a long night ahead, treating the 8 p.m. show as a warm-up for the midnight show. By the time The Dirty Dozen Brass Band assembled, the room already felt primed for participation, and the dancefloor was packed with ready revelers.
That sense of ceremony is something the Dirty Dozen understands instinctively. Founded in 1977, the New Orleans ensemble has spent nearly five decades expanding the brass band tradition by folding in funk, R&B, hip-hop, and popular song, all without loosening the grip of the second-line groove. Their 90-minute set didn’t argue for relevance so much as demonstrate it. What unfolded was not a retrospective but a living ritual—music designed to activate bodies, voices, and memory all at once.
The band asserted control immediately after a slightly underpowered house introduction. Trumpeter and founding member Gregory Davis stepped to the microphone to correct the mood. “He almost got it right,” he said dryly, before insisting on a do-over. With a booming MC cadence—“All the way from New Orleans, we are The Dirty Dozen Brass Band!”—he reset the room. The crowd roared, and the night snapped into focus.
“Do It Fluid” opened the set with a deep, elastic funk pocket. Guitarist Takeshi Shimmura and drummer Julian Addison locked into a groove that immediately widened the band’s sonic frame, while the horn frontline traded short, declarative phrases. Sousaphonist Kirk Joseph anchored everything with buoyant bass lines, almost echoing San Francisco Bay’s fog horns.
The group leaned into New Orleans R&B history with “I’m Walkin’,” allowing muted trumpet and trombone to stretch the tune’s familiar contours. Without breaking momentum, they slid directly into “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love,” keeping the groove intact while layering in call-and-response cues that dissolved the boundary between stage and audience.
“Cissy Strut” expanded into a 12-minute jam after a playful spoken interlude that snapped cleanly into The Meters’ iconic riff. Takeshi Shimmura’s guitar solo reveled in classic 1970s funk vocabulary while the horns punctuated the groove with discipline and bite.
The mood shifted briefly with “Tomorrow,” introduced as a song of hope and participation. The political subtext was unmistakable but folded seamlessly into the groove rather than standing apart from it.
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Photo Steve Roby
“California Love” became the set’s most explosive moment, reimagined as a Bay Area anthem through improvised lyric substitutions. The recognition was immediate and ecstatic.
Tenor saxophonist Trevarri Huff-Boone introduced Mardi Gras as the next major New Orleans ritual, setting up “Mardi Gras in New Orleans,” complete with dance instruction and a whistled solo.
At precisely 9 p.m. West Coast time, the band led an East Coast New Year’s countdown, then “Auld Lang Syne,” as the room filled with embraces, off-key singing, and noisemakers.
The closing James Brown medley and “My Feet Can’t Fail Me Now” served as both homage and release, ending with one final dance lesson before the set concluded on time.
Nearly half a century later, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band remains neither a preservationist nor a novelty act, but a living conduit for a social music built on groove, participation, and collective release.
Program Notes
Event: New Orleans New Year: Ring In The New Year At SFJAZZ
Band: The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
Date: Wednesday, December 31, 2025
Venue: Miner Auditorium
Location: San Francisco, California
Showtime: 8:00 p.m.
Personnel
Dirty Dozen Brass Band: Roger Lewis (Baritone Sax/Vocals), Gregory Davis (Trumpet/Vocals), Kirk Joseph (Sousaphone), Trevarri Huff-Boone (Tenor Sax/Vocals), Stephen Walker (Trombone/Vocals), Julian Addison (Drums), and Takeshi Shimmura (Guitar).
Setlist: “Do It Fluid” (Donald Byrd); “I’m Walkin’” (Antoine “Fats” Domino/Dave Bartholomew); “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” (Bert Berns, Solomon Burke, and Jerry Wexler); “Cissy Strut” (The Meters); “Tomorrow” (Efrem Towns, Kirk Joseph, and Jake Eckert); “California Love” (Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, Roger Troutman, Larry Troutman, Mikel Hooks, Norman Durham, and Woody Cunningham); “Mardi Gras in New Orleans” (Roy Bird); “Auld Lang Syne” (Joseph Haydn, Robert Burns); “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine/Super Bad/Days of Wine and Roses” (James Brown, Bobby Byrd, and Ronald Lenhoff); “My Feet Can't Fail Me Now" (Buckwheat Zydeco)
