As for why New Orleans was such a musical city and had so many bands, I think one reason had to do with the clubs. There were a lot of private clubs, organisations, in New Orleans. Two or three guys would get together, you know, and make up the club and it would grow. So, when a member of the club died, they would hire a band for his funeral, and if the club had some part in a parade, they would have a band for that too. All the clubs tried to outdo each other. Like I remember what used to happen when different clubs would go to their camps out on the water by the lake front. There would be one band playing at the camp of one club and another band playing at the camp of another, and each band would try to outplay the other. You could hear music real well over the water, you know.

One thing about funerals, by the way, that isn't made clear in some of the stories. The bands themselves never went into the cemeteries…

You could always make a living in New Orleans just playing gigs like that--funerals, lawn parties, parades, et cetera. Buddy Petit, for example, never did take a steady job. He didn't have to, and that's true of a lot of men who were good musicians, and who, by the way, have never been written about.