There are two large beautiful coffee table books about New Orleans street culture in recent circulation. I reviewed Freedom's Dance: Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs in New Orleans several months ago. That book focused on the clubs that present parades, the clothes they wear, the dancing, and the reason for it all. It featured large color photographs of well-adorned Second Liners taken by local photographer Eric Waters.
New Orleans street culture is so large and so wonderful that there is little overlap between that book and this one, and excellent reasons for the Nolaphile to acquire both.
Freedom's Dance focused on the clubs, Talk That Music Talk turns the lens, and the microphone on the bands those clubs hire. It is part of The Neighborhood Story Project, a collaborative ethnography effort founded in 2004 to document New Orleans' unique cultures.
The book weaves together interviews with people who have shaped the modern brass band experience in New Orleans with a focus on those bands and educational programs preserving the traditional style of play.
Rachel Breunlin, who is a co-author of this book and teaches at UNO, conducts some of the interviews. The others are lead by Bruce Sunpie Barnes, who is a musician, Chief of the North Side Skull and Bones Gang
