Clattermouuuth’s Music of The Week: ‘Do Whatcha Wanna’ By Rebirth Brass Band 

By Andrew Kohler

Welcome back to Clattermouuuth’s Music of the Week, curating Rockaway’s music taste one week at a time.

This week, I wanted to talk about an album that I wanted to write about a while ago but forgot about it until now: “Do Whatcha Wanna” by Rebirth Brass Band. It’s a Dixieland Jazz album, which is a genre developed in the early 20th century in Louisiana. I love Dixieland Jazz because it never needs to be perfectly recorded or mixed, because it’s meant to sound live, it’s the type of music you’d hear at a Mardi Gras parade in Louisiana.

“Do Whatcha Wanna” is not a traditional jazz album. While the average jazz song is built off some sturdy piano chords or anchored by a strong drum line, this album’s foundation is the horns — the rowdiest instrument of them all — and that’s what makes the album so rowdy, so alive. And isn’t that what we all need from time to time?

There are vocals, but the vocals are never in the foreground. It sounds like whoever is singing is as far away from the microphone as possible, which makes the album feel that much more live. Skip to the beginning of “All Blues” and you’ll hear the band shouting and making wild noises, hyping each other up like it’s a block party. It’s chaotic in the best way.

That’s really what this album is all about: fun. It didn’t make millions of dollars, and Rebirth Brass Band is definitely not going to be selling out any stadiums, but can’t that be nice? Isn’t it refreshing to know that the artist you’re listening to isn’t making the music for money or Grammys but making it for pure “love of the game?”

The music industry is so com­petitive, and it feels as though every popular song was built for the algorithm and engineered to squeeze as many streams as it can get. But “Do Whatcha Wanna” isn’t doing any of that. It feels like more of an album for the musician, not the market, and the listener gets to sit back and witness the fun that can be had with music when the soul isn’t filtered out through equalizers and reverb. It’s an album that’s powerful and passionate without being “perfect.”

So, turn this record on and make it loud. Then, well, do whatcha wanna.