Season 2023 Episode 13 | 8m 50s | Video has closed captioning.
On his first day as the newest member of a dysfunctional brass band, a teenager displaced by Hurricane Katrina learns all about the unique community he's been disconnected from and the traditions that follow them to the grave.
Aired: 07/10/23
Expires: 07/09/25
- White hat and sneakers.
Boy, kids today.
Come on man, we gonna be late.
You can sing right?
- No, sir.
- At least know the tunes I sent you?
- Yes, sir.
I learned them.
- Hey, what you mean you learned them?
You have played a second line before, right?
- Yes, sir, in Houston.
- Son, this ain't the grand opening to some Galleria.
This is a funeral.
You have been to a second line before in New Orleans, right?
- Um, I lived there since the storm.
- Don't tell the band.
Parades for hire, boy.
- Aren't they all for hire?
- Yeah, they all for hire, man, but now every wedding and cat birthday got a parade.
Don't get me wrong, man.
The parade is nice, but now everybody I know gigging, and I'm stuck with a youngster who ain't got a (bleep) clue.
- Cat birthday?
- Yeah, cat birthday.
Come on, boy.
(ship horn whistles) (light carousel music) (ship horn whistles) Just, just be cool, man.
Hey, fellas, this is John.
He with us now.
That's Loudmouth.
- [John] Nice to meet you.
- No, Mouth don't talk, man.
Just speak through his horn.
(saxophone plays jazz riff) That's Happy.
That old fossil over there is Youngblood.
- No thanks.
I don't smoke marijuana.
- Marijuana?
- Man, I ain't heard it called that since I got harassed a by a cop yesterday.
You a cop?
(saxophone stops playing) - No.
(dramatic music) - That's Rev.
(dramatic music continues) (dramatic music continues) - [Boss] You late.
- Knew that (bleep) Clark was gonna be late, so actually I'm really early.
Who's that pieface mother(bleep)?
- I told you, we needed another player.
- Where you from, boy?
- New Orleans.
- New Orleans?
What road?
- The Loyola dorm, sir.
- Oh man!
A college boy?
You see, he didn't tell me all that now.
- Can he even blow?
- That's all we can get right now.
- You know that's more than just about playing, right?
- What's happenin' Reverend?
- Course we get you.
- It's going, Rev, right?
Who is this?
What the?
- Clark don't get here soon, we gonna be late for both gigs.
- His mama said he was so overdue, he was bald with a goatee at his eighth grade graduation.
- God rest her soul.
- And he was late at her funeral, too.
Showed up stinking of Jack, almost dropped the coffin, if it weren't for Mouth.
- Family ain't talked to him since, neither.
- He can't always be that late.
- Who?
Man, he was so late for his first wedding, just called the whole thing off.
- Preacher on the bride face like, "You know you could do better."
- My sister was still pissed, but that made her feel better.
- He left your sister at the altar?
- Yep.
And Happy's too, and his cousin.
- And my other sister, too.
- Who do you think he moved in with?
Always late with the rent, got us both kicked out.
- Got me kicked out twice, man.
- Man, he displaced our whole neighborhood worse than the (bleep) storm.
- So why y'all friends with him?
- We not.
We thicker than blood.
(dramatic music sting) (coffin rumbles) - But that (bleep) ends today.
(coffin carrier breathes heavily) (coffin thuds) - What the?
- Clark had that effect on everybody he met.
- Late for his own (bleep) funeral.
- Wait.
Clark's in there?
- Why you think we need another trumpet player?
Stupid.
- Where are all the mourners?
- We're the first and second line today.
- How the hell we gonna carry him and play?
- Come on, man.
Carrying him one last time ain't gonna kill us.
John, you get the front, I get the back.
Come on, grab a side over here.
Happy and Mouth trade between solos.
Well, come on, boy!
Let's go.
What you waiting on?
Grab the front.
"Drag Your Cross" on one, fellas.
Come on.
(drum rolls) (slow jazz music) (slow jazz music continues) (slow jazz music continues) (slow jazz music continues) (slow jazz music continues) - All right.
All right.
I should say something.
(slow jazz music continues) Clark Maurice Carter Baptiste was an original.
They say you live on by what you leave behind.
Clark left a stack of overdue notices, unpaid late fines, and pissed off sisters.
- Amen.
- But he was our brother and son.
I know we replaced you with John, but that's only in our band, and not in here.
I hope that John will carry on the tradition when it is our time to come home.
The tradition that honors our kinfolk in this beautiful, forsaken swamp.
(slow jazz music continues) I'm but a man.
I cannot judge where you end up, Clark.
But at the gates of heaven or darkness, (slow jazz music continues) they probably wondering where the hell you at, 'cause you're probably late there too.
(slow jazz music continues) (shovel slices dirt) We love you, Clark.
We'll see you when we come home.
(dirt thuds) - [Boss] If you with us, go on John.
- [Rev] Go ahead now.
(John clears throat) ♪ Soon this life will all be over ♪ ♪ And my sinful days will end ♪ ♪ So we'll take our heavenly journey ♪ ♪ Be at home again with friends ♪ ♪ Just a little while to stay here ♪ ♪ Just a little while to wait ♪ ♪ Just a little while to labor ♪ ♪ In the path that's always straight ♪ ♪ Just a little more our troubles ♪ ♪ In this low and sinful state ♪ ♪ Then we'll enter Heaven's portals ♪ ♪ Boppin' through the pearly gates ♪ ("Just a Little While" continues instrumentally)
