Page 44 - The Jazzsipper Novel

43

THE JAZZ SIPPER

their chief concerns. Always, where there is life, eventually, there is death. This
organization was also the first form of "insurance", to ever exist in any African
American communities, and quite possibly, the first in America. They paid funeral
costs, when possible, and arranged for Jazz funerals. You could build up a good equity
up in the club, and if times got hard, you could even borrow against the value of the
policy. This function is where the clubs and groups that followed derive their core
name, "social aid". After the Civil War, it was much easier to get musical instruments,
so newly freed African Americans, began to form marching bands that consisted of
only brass instruments with the lone exception of a bass and tom drums. In the late
1890's and the early 1900's these "Brass bands" began to be asked to perform at Jazz
funerals. Jazz funerals were at the heart of an early African slave religious practice, of
celebrating the life of a deceased person. When the church's funeral service was over,
and the procession began the movement from the church to the cemetery, the band
would play slow, sad, funeral hymns, known as a "dirge". Led by a "Grand Marshal",
the band and mourners would move to the burial site, with the band playing a dirge to
signal the struggles, the hardships, the ups and downs of life. On the way back, the
music became more joyful. The band played high-spirited tunes such as "Didn't He
Ramble," and "Lil Liza Jane", amongst other tunes. This was to signal the dismissal,
and interment of the physical body, and the joyous event of the release, of the soul, to
heaven. Relatives, friends, and acquaintances would become the second line and
dance with wild abandon. The second line, usually sported umbrellas and
handkerchiefs that became traditional at these jazz funerals. After the Association’s
untimely demise, more benevolent organizations arose within neighborhoods to
function as mutual aid societies.

These Social Aid Clubs of the early 20th Century provided and (some still do,) aid
to fellow African Americans and insure that club members get a proper burial.
Members would dress in matching suits, and outfits, with handmade decorative chest
banners, called "sashes" and they carried elaborately decorated fans, umbrellas, and
handkerchiefs. All embroidered, engraved or imprinted with the organization's name.