Video Documentary of New Orleans, Louisiana's Second Line Music & Dancing (with my unofficial transcript that corrects that video's captions)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part I of a three part pancocojams series about New Orleans, Louisiana's second line music and dancing.

Part I showcases a YouTube video about the history and culture of New Orleans, Louisiana's second line music and dancing. My unofficial transcription of that video that corrects some of that video's captions is also included in this post.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/02/youtube-video-comments-about-new.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. Part II showcases a video of a New Orleans, Louisiana second line funeral and includes selected comments from that video's discussion thread.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/02/youtube-video-best-of-terrylyn-dorsey.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. Part III of this series showcases a video of a New Orleans, Louisiana second line dancing and includes selected comments from that video's discussion thread. The Addendum to Part II provides information about the New Orleans Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs (which were referred to as "Benevolent Societies" in the documentary that was showcased in Part I of this pancocojams series).

The content of this post is presented for cultural, historical, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and all those who are featured in this embedded video. Thanks also to the publisher of this video on YouTube.

Hat tip to Denise Oliver Velez for writing the article "Black History Month: Celebrating 'Iko Iko,' Mardi Gras Indians, and the second line" on dailykos https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/23/1913217/-Black-History-Month-Celebrating-Iko-Iko-Mardi-Gras-Indians-and-the-second-line. That article inspired me to research and publish this pancocojams series on New Orleans, Louisiana second lines.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/02/why-umbrellas-parasols-are-carried-by.html for Part I a closely related pancocojams series. Part I presents information about the Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs (SAPC) and provides information about the history of umbrellas (parasols).

Also, click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/02/videos-of-ghanaians-holding-large.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. Part II showcases videos of umbrellas/parasols in Ghanaian (West Africa) festivals. Part II also showcases videos of members of some New Orleans Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs carrying umbrellas/parasols, or feathered fans during jazz funerals and second line parades.

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SHOWCASE VIDEO: THE SECOND LINE (Historical Documentary of New Orleans Music & Culture)



Trap DeVilleFeb 25, 2015

Documentary Pilot For a Tulane University Program called Music Rising, Executive Produced by BILSUM MUSIC & DIRTY SOUTHERN HOLLYWOOD
in New Orleans Louisiana September 2014.

Executive Producer Bill Summers & Dirty Southern Hollywood Films
Edited by Stefan Solea.

We encourage any and everyone to use the information within this video freely to educate students all around the world!

PLEASE SHARE!

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE ABOUT THIS UNOFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT OF THAT VIDEO'S CAPTIONS
I transcribed this video when I notice that a number of the video's captions were incorrect.

In this transcription, I put a word in brackets that explains something that was actually said or heard during that presentation. For instance, "mourningful" [mournful]

A description of who is talking is given in parenthesis before each of their remarks.

Additions and corrections to this transcription are welcome.

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Notice the call & response pattern of the remarks that were made about second line dancing that begins at 6:35 in this video transcription.

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UNOFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT OF THAT VIDEO'S CAPTIONS

(Bill Summers)
"Hey everybody. My name is Bill Summers and we’re in New Orleans, Louisiana. And today we’re gonna talk about second line.

That’s right, the second line. And if you were born and raised in Louisiana or if you’re just a visitor or have you spent many days here, you have to know second line. You’ve heard it. You’ve seen it and you’ve experienced it. And what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna dissect the second line. When we talk about dissecting, that means we’re gonna look at every aspect, every part of what makes the second line what it is. It’s music, it’s dance, it’s a song, and it’s a celebration of life.

And when we’re talking about second line, we have to talk about Africa, Africa. The second line dates back thousands of years before there was a Louisiana-before the Mayflower even. It goes back to West and Central Africa. And the history of instruments and dance and culture, art in Africa has found itself in Congo Square in the early days of rag and jazz. Let’s dissect the second line.

(A second Black man speaks.)
So to start thinks off, we take a look at the components of the brass band or, as it’s known in some parts of New Orleans, the second line band.

[drums playing]

[Horns played with the drums]

(Third Black man speaks)
The second line-I’ll give my definition of it and this is one of the definitions- it’s the collaboration between a celebration of dance and music. It manifests itself through certain social events in New Orleans. One with Benevolent Societies, with funerals, and celebrations. What was happening in New Orleans is the early to middle 1800s you know we had free people of color. You had enslaved people. You had this was a port of embarkation. It was a large port, the second largest port in the country. It was the largest city in the south and it was also a city of vice and good gaming and fun. And so, when you put all those things together and it was a big movement with musicians who were educated as well as people who just had the innate ability to perform. And, when you put into that pot the music that people learned in an educational setting -like we had a Symphonic Society here of a hundred artists, over a hundred musicians in 1840- the first Society of its kind in America. This was the focal point for opera and in the country. The Opera House- the first one was here. So when you look at that and you take, you mix that with the church, with work songs, field songs, what happened in Congo Square- very significant. This was a port of invocation for the military. You have all of these, especially African Americans who had access to horns and instruments. And you begin to play these marches. And these marches, they decided they wanted to rag the melody. They didn’t want to just play those melodies straight up and down like they were written, like they were doing in the Eurocentric type setting.

We had these Benevolent Societies. You put that in the mix. And these Benevolent Societies were all early insurance companies. And they had certain days they celebrated as they celebrated life. And especially when somebody passed [died], somebody notable in the community, they would play these mouningful [mournful] songs coming from the houses going to the church or goin from the church to the graveyard. And these dirges were hymns, nothing but hymns, very slow and mourningful [mournful]. And at a certain point, when they’d go through this ritual of cutting the body loose, where the bereaved family would go through the middle of the band and then go into the bury the dead, the community would go off to the other way, and they would go celebrate this life after death. And so that’s when you heard this perked up in the music that we call second line. That’s what it developed out of.

(Second man speaks)
Different movements that are precise- yeah. And different dances for different songs as you will see.
So one of the premier dance men in all of New Orleans- we call him “Squirtman”.

What’s happenin? How you doin?

(Squirtman speaks)
Hey there, brother. I feel blessed to be here, first of all.

(Second man) So how long you been dancin?

(Squirtman)
Well, first of all, I wanna give all my praises to God for making every opportunity and every moment valuable.

(Second man)
Yes. Yes indeedy.

(Squirtman)
You know, I’ve been dancing since ’71, comin up 100. I was introduced to second line and Social Pleasure Clubs

(Second Man)
Um hum.

(Squirtman)
but my first encounter with a Jazz band was at a Jazz funeral for my mother.

(Second man)
Really.

(Squirtman)
And to me, all second line, when my age, when I came up in our time, second line was -it was a spiritual movement. [meaning “spirit moment"?]

(Second man)
Yes. That’s right.

(Squirtman)
It was a movement, see what I’m sayin. It was a movement in our life at that time in the civil rights time that’s all we had.

(Second man)
That’s right.

(Squirtman)
It was in that spiritual movement that’ s what I still go off to do because when the man brought instruments, he’s comin from his inside, you hear what I’m sayin. So when it goes in my ear, I listen until that spirit comes to my spirit ‘cause it’s a movement thing where you express, you know verbally or through your body. It’s a movement thing.

[Throughout this part of Squirtman’s comments the Second Man repeats “Um hum” and “That’s right.]

(Squirtman)
And I got a thing I call the spirit role, you know you go for hours in second line so when I get tired, the spirit role kicks in.

(Second man)
I’ve seen you dancing for a while.

(Squirtman)
See what I’m sayin- that’s that spirit role, that develops, most like so kids, you know, when we come up, that’s part of how you develop and grow and mature. You know, I play like you suppose to growin up, just like I was taught, you know in baseball, basketball, and track and all, just we were taught second line, like second line season...

(Second Man)
Yes, indeed.

(Squirtman)
You see what I’m sayin. The parade come through the neighborhood and no matter what you was doin, the band draw you...

(Second Man)
Yeah. You had to go.

(Squirtman)
And in that movement was part of our peace and our strength.

(Second man)
That’s right.

(Squirtman)
And it’s part of our peace and our strength.

(Second Man)
That’s right.

So to me second line itself is self-creativity. See what I’m sayin. You can take the snare drum, the bass drum, the tuba, the trombone, the sax, the [patterna?], you can dance off of individuals, or you can dance off of it as a collective group.

[The second line band plays while Squirtman dances]

(Second man)
Well, we’ve assembled the entire unit. It is time to hit the streets! Let’s roll.”

[The video ends with scenes of a second line band and people forming the “second line”.]

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This concludes Part I of this three part pancocojams series.

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