Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band
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The Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band, also known as the Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band, was a New Orleans brass band notable for spuring the revival of participation in the city's brass band tradition by a new generation.
The group of young musicians was organized in 1970 by banjo- and guitar-player Danny Barker. Based out of the Fairview Baptist Church in New Orleans, Louisiana and led in performance by trumpeter Leroy Jones (who was thirteen when Barker recruited him), the band gained considerable popularity in New Orleans [1] and became a regular feature on the city's music scene. In 1974 union musicians in New Orleans protested that Barker's use of non-union youngsters to fill the ranks of his band was exploitative, and forced him to disband the group or lose his own union membership. Barker withdrew, but the group immediately reformed as the Hurricane Brass Band, under the direction of the newly-unionized Jones; members of the Hurricane band went on to form the Dirty Dozen Brass Band in 1977.
Notable alumni of the Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band included Jones, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Dr. Michael White, Joe Torregano, Anthony "Tuba Fats" Lacen, and Charles and Kirk Joseph.
