"ON LABOR DAY MONDAY -- IT'S TIME FOR THE BETHANY BEACH JAZZ FUNERAL
-- BUT WHAT IS ITS ORIGIN?

The Bethany Beach Jazz Funeral is a celebration at the end of the summer to bid a fond farewell to the traditional summer season in this small southern Delaware beach town. The 2002 Bethany Beach Jazz Funeral is celebrated on Labor Day Monday, September 2 with activities beginning about 5 or 5:30 p.m.

The Jazz Funeral always has special significance for those who reside and work in the Bethany Beach area.

"Not only do we bid a fond farewell to the summer season of 2002, we will enjoy a celebration of the true spirit of Bethany Beach that continues on throughout the year," said Art Antal was the 2001 chairman of one of Bethany Beach's most unusual traditions. "We also look forward to next year's Memorial Day weekend when the summer season of 2003 begins and we again greet our summer friends."

To help bury the Summer of 2002, a four piece New Orleans Jazz band, the Dixie Cats, will provide the entertainment.

The focal point of the celebration is the Funeral Procession that usually starts at the North end of the Boardwalk and slowly proceeds to the Boardwalk bandstand to the strain of such songs as "When the Saints Go Marching In" and "St. James Infirmary."

Leading the Bethany Beach Jazz Funeral this year will be Kirk Rankin who is the official processional leader and headstone carrier.

A Jazz Funeral participant since its inception over 15 years ago, Rankin has carried the headstone for the past three years. Rankin is often asked by observers about the origin of the Jazz Funeral.

"After 16 years of the Bethany Beach Jazz Funeral, people still ask us, 'What is the Bethany Beach Jazz Funeral?' and 'Where did the idea of the Jazz Funeral come from?'"

Rankin said the inquiries are perfectly normal, since the tradition of the Jazz Funeral is native to New Orleans, rather than the Southern Delaware Beach area.

"The idea of the Jazz Funeral in Bethany Beach was originated by Moss Wagner," said Rankin. "For many years, Wagner owned the Bethany Beach Ice Cream Parlor on Garfield Parkway and later Moss’ Boss Ice Cream Shop on Atlantic Ave. He was also a former Bethany Beach town councilman who was known for his innovative ideas."

"Moss was directly influenced by the Jazz Funerals held in New Orleans," said Rankin who is an integral part of Patsy's, a restaurant rated as "Best at the Beach" in a May, 2002 survey by the Washington Post. "He thought it would be a fun activity since we have such as a short season with a definitive beginning and end."

Both Rankin and Wagner often discussed the roots of the Jazz Funeral. In fact, Wagner was the leader of the Jazz Funeral for the first 12 years and dressed for the part as the Grim Reaper. Now Rankin is the leader of the Bethany Beach Jazz Funeral.

"We often talked about the New Orleans Jazz Funeral tradition. More properly, it is a funeral with music," Rankin said. "Funerals with music predated the start of jazz, and they continued with the contemporary New Orleans Street-Funk style of brass band, with music and traditions quite different from the older style of funerals."

Although a Jazz Funeral may sound somewhat far removed from what most people are used to, Rankin said that music is a part of life's activities.

"For almost every activity in the life of the individual or community, there is appropriate music," Rankin said. "It is an integral part of life from the hour of birth to beyond the grave."

The roots of the Bethany Beach Jazz Funeral are definitely that of New Orleans.

"One of the more distinguished aspects of New Orleans Culture is the Jazz Funeral," Rankin said. "Architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe noted in 1919 that the New Orleans Jazz funerals were, ‘peculiar to New Orleans alone among all American cities.'"

"The late jazzman Danny Barker writing in his book Bourbon Street Blues noted the funeral is seen as 'a major celebration.' The roots of the Jazz Funeral date back to Africa over four centuries ago."

There is also an important societal consideration that made the original Jazz Funerals a meaningful part of the social fabric of the times.

"Throughout history, the idea of providing a proper burial to your fellow brother or sister is a strong one," Rankin said. "As time passed, this became one of the basic principles of the social and pleasure clubs that many New Orleans citizens were members of."

"The social and pleasure club guaranteed proper burial conditions as did many fraternal orders and lodges to any member who passed. These organizations were precursors to the concept of burial insurance and the debit insurance companies."

The practice of having music during funeral processions was added to the basic pattern of celebration for most aspects of life, including death.

As the brass band became increasingly popular during the early 19th century, they were frequently called on to play processional music that included funerals, Rankin said.

"There is a great quote by Sidney Bechet, a renowned New Orleans jazzman, after he observed the celebration of a jazz funeral," Rankin said. "Bechet said, 'Music here is as much a part of death as it is of life.'"

One might say the traditional New Orleans Jazz Funeral is as much a part of the fabric and rich cultural traditions of New Orleans as red beans and rice.

"While those who visit Bethany Beach during the summer seem to prefer French fries and ice cream cones to red beans and rice, there is still a need to say good bye a friend we will not see until the next year -- the summer season in Bethany Beach," Rankin surmised. "Being part of the Jazz Funeral is like taking part of one of the social traditions of Bethany Beach."

According to former Jazz Chairman Antal, the 16th Annual Jazz Funeral "with refreshments, entertainment and reminiscence" starts at 5 p.m. with "The Wake." The "Solemn Procession" follows at 5:30 p.m. The Jazz Funeral, "in honor of our departed friend, Summer," is open to all mourners.

Antal said that the Jazz Funeral is a "fun" event. He encourages people to dress in "appropriate attire where comedy is the main theme" for this year's celebration.

Although it is a Jazz Funeral tradition to not announce the official Jazz Funeral Parade Route in advance, this year's procession, accompanied by the music of the Dixie Cats, will most likely start at the north end of the Bethany Boardwalk about 5:30 p.m. and travel south down the Boardwalk to the Bethany Beach Bandstand at Garfield Parkway and the Boardwalk.