List of Illustrations  vii

Prologue. Crossing the Threshold  ix

Introduction. Forward Motion  1

1. Onward and Upward  13

2. Constraints  69

3. Progressions  107

4. Voices  141

Conclusion. Engagements  177

Afterword. Music and Image in the Art of Willie Burch / Willie Burch and Matt Sakakeeny  185

Acknowledgments  193

Appendix. List of Interviews and Public Events  197

Notes  199

Bibliography  211

Index  225

Willie Birch

“As Sakakeeny makes clear, the story of the city’s brass bands is far more complex than music alone. Beyond its entertainment value, music serves as the ‘site where competing social, political, and economic vectors intersect.’ In many ways, these vectors serve as a microcosm for the problems within the city at large.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Roll With It, which includes striking black-and-white illustrations by New Orleans artist Willie Birch, is at once celebratory and saddening: a book of personal stories and a highly researched academic work.”—Geraldine Wyckoff, Offbeat

“As Sakakeeny makes clear, the story of the city’s brass bands is far more complex than music alone. Beyond its entertainment value, music serves as the ‘site where competing social, political, and economic vectors intersect.’ In many ways, these vectors serve as a microcosm for the problems within the city at large.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Roll With It, which includes striking black-and-white illustrations by New Orleans artist Willie Birch, is at once celebratory and saddening: a book of personal stories and a highly researched academic work.”—Geraldine Wyckoff, Offbeat

"A new essential in the post-Katrina history of New Orleans, Roll With It is, perhaps, the most astute and clear-headed assessment of how the musical essence of New Orleans is ingrained in the personal and political lives of those who live in that extraordinary city. The brass-band culture detailed lovingly here by Matt Sakakeeny is no mere entertainment to those who understand it, nor is it there as tourist-bait or as a museum piece of quaint tradition. This is New Orleans itself, arguing for itself, and using culture as language and currency. To the extent thus far possible, what has saved New Orleans–more than government fiat, or grand economic imperatives, or any hint of functional leaderships–is in the street, damn near every Sunday afternoon."—David Simon, creator of the television series The Wire and Treme

"Matt Sakakeeny tells the story of a vibrant, living culture in prose so vivid and moving, it is matched only by the music about which he writes. His illuminating examination of the contemporary New Orleans brass band culture reveals what it means to create great art, to continually mold and revise a tradition, and to try to make a living under an often dehumanizing racial regime—a complex urban world where making music can be a matter of life and death. Roll With It not only opens our ears to the music and its urban echoes, but it opens our eyes, enabling us to finally see the people who make the second line move."—Robin Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original

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