Brice Miller Interview Part 3
After a very long pause I am posting the conclusion to the interview segment of my conversation with Trumpeter/ Bandleader/ Educator, Brice Miller from the Summer of 2013.
Brice is finishing up a degree, dissertation is complete- so partially I'd like to use this as a congratulatory gesture for his landmark accomplishment.
(In fact, I also just completed a degree myself so I can get back to these interviews.)
There are two other, highly recommendable, earlier segments to this interview, of course.
In Part 3 of this interview Brice touches on the following...
Brass bands in other parts of the United States; the "mythical" Congo Square; the role of formal musical education in the development early jazz artists- Buddy Bolden; brass bands around the world; jazz funerals, 2nd lines, benevolent societies and their roles in solidifying the place of people of color in the city- the taking of it; why brass bands in New Orleans have outlived the traditions in other cities; political needs for brass bands; more on cultural mentorship, cultural capital, social capital; the relation of brass band music to other musics in the city; Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Nicholas Payton- their start associated with the brass band tradition; being able to speak collectively; Trombone Shorty; the difficulties of talking to music press and their false ideas of what audiences will find interesting; the maligning or ignoring of intellectual sides to musicians in the press; coming out of depression after Katrina; the way that Brice's identity was used and became a caricature after the storm; going to the University of Alabama; telling the story of real New Orleans music, and the 200 year history of brass bands, honestly; the indignity of the reduction of all narratives of people of color to slavery; the influence of personal understanding of history on personal identity development; final comments- retelling your own stories.
Believe it or not, there is a whole other more conversational and, perhaps more evocative section to this that I will post soon.
