Morton Roberts, Storyville and Jazz scenes for LIFE Magazine, 1958 (link)
“It was pretty, all right, to see those funerals. A man belong to one of the organizations and die, his widow say ‘let him have music’ so the organization hire a marching band. On the way out to the cemetery, before they bury the man, the band played most all hymns, like ‘Just A Closer Walk with Thee.’ But once they left there, then they started to swing. They wouldn’t be 25 feet from the graveyard before they hit ‘Didn’t He Ramble.’ Yes sir, he rambled, he rambled. Then they’d play ‘Sing On,’ or ‘The Saints.’ The kids would come a runnin’, wanting to jump. So they’d form that second line beside the band. Everybody else would be bouncing along too, some with baskets of flowers, some with those sharp lookin’ umbrellas. I liked to see that. Finally the band would get to the lodge hall and break up and that was always the end of a perfect death.’
See also: Wynton Marsalis plays ‘2nd Line’ live + History of the Second Line in New Orleans
Also also: Monkmus animated video featuring Second Line for Kid Koala’s amazing version of ‘Basin Street Blues’
Also more: Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club at 100
Reblogged from CONSTANT SIEGE.
