New Orleans brass bands were falling fast out of favor when the Dirty Dozen Brass Band formed in the late '70s, but the group not only helped to keep the tradition alive, it also became one of the city's more popular touring acts in the '80s. That's not to say they were complete traditionalists: Unlike their forefathers, they drew deeply from funk (and later hip-hop) music, and over the years they've collaborated with artists as diverse as Elvis Costello, Widespread Panic and Modest Mouse. Their last album was 2006's What's Going On, a song-for-song reinterpretation of Marvin Gaye's masterpiece that they recorded in response to Hurricane Katrina. Like many of their neighbors, they've since appeared on HBO's post-Katrina drama “Treme.”
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