If you don't think The Dirty Dozen Brass Band is a jam band, just ask some of its biggest fans: the members of Medeski, Martin and Wood, Galactic and Widespread Panic.

All three have worked extensively with the veteran New Orleans act, which, for 22 years, has taken the traditional brass band sound of the Crescent City and turned it on its ear with be-bop roots and a funky sound that's as New Orleans as Mardi Gras.

I spoke with DDBB saxophonist Roger Lewis about his tight relationship with acts in the jam scene, particularly John Medeski, a huge fan of New Orleans music who produced the group's second album for Mammoth Records, last year's ultra-funky "Buck Jump."

BM: I was speaking with Charles Neville, and he was saying how in New Orleans, kids play music on the streets the way kids in other cities play ball. Was it like that for you?

RL: It's like that for nearly everybody. It just gets passed down from generation to generation. A lot of the traditional music is really just church hymns, so a lot of that music comes from out of the Baptist Church. It's church and family. That's why New Orleans music has so much feeling, because it has that gospel thing that's happening in the music. That's why you get so much feeling from that music. It just dates back.

It makes sense to me that John Medeski produced your latest album, because he loves New Orleans music and often plays it with his band Medeski, Martin and Wood. Now there's a band who's based in New York. And they're not the only ones playing New Orleans style music outside of New Orleans. There's Widespread Panic, who you've toured with quite a lot. How does it feel to see New Orleans style music played all over the place in front of audiences that wouldn't hear it otherwise?

RL: Oh man, it makes me feel good, just to know that you can bring your music to other parts of the world and the country, and people appreciate what you do. I mean, you can't get no better than that.

  BM: How much does New Orleans appreciate that? Because you've got kids going to check out the Dirty Dozen Brass Band opening for Galactic or Widespread Panic and they're like, 'Oh my god! What is this stuff?' And as soon as they can, they're on their way down to New Orleans to check it out for real there.

RL: Well, I don't know how New Orleans appreciates it. I'm not involved in politics. I have no clue, but I'll put it to you like this. The city declared a Dirty Dozen Brass Band Day. They have a date set aside.

People in New Orleans have been born and raised with this music. It's no big thing. It's only a big thing outside of New Orleans. We were born and raised with this stuff. Somebody's always playing an instrument and there's bands playing all the time in New Orleans. Of course, people enjoy their music and take their music very seriously. We've got a dance that goes along with this music that we play that nobody in the world can do but people in New Orleans. It's a Buck Jump kind of a thing. You'd be surprised by what people do with their bodies when they be dancing to the music.

I remember we used to play a club called The Glass House uptown, and there were these group of four guys who could really dance. They had this one guy, they called him Mr. Smith. He looked like he was standing straight up, but the other half of his body would be moving. His legs would be doing all kinds of crazy things, but the rest of his body would be straight as an arrow. These cats would do all kinds of incredible things to this music. Most people from New Orleans have that little second line step that they do that nobody in the world can do like they do here. We really take our music real seriously. People in New Orleans really appreciate their music.

  BM: Galactic had an interesting thing to say the last time I talked with them. They said there's so many bands in New Orleans that could be huge if they'd just leave New Orleans, go out and tour.

RL: Oh yeah. There's The Pinstripes and The Lil' Rascals. The Hot Eight.

  BM: Is that a take off on Louis Armstrong's Hot Five?

RL: No, it's a take off on the Dirty Dozen. All these bands came after the Dirty Dozen and play our kind of style. But a lot of them do travel, like The Little Rascals and the Rebirth Brass Band. They go all over the place, to Europe. They're getting a lot of exposure not only in the United States but outside the United States. This kind of music seems to be taking off.

  BM: Here we are full steam into a new millennium and this traditional New Orleans music is so popular. How do you feel about keeping it alive and fresh?

RL: Well, I'll tell you, we just did a gig in Chicago. They've got a lot of brass bands that are springing up. This group that opened for us was The Young Blood Brass Band. Brass band might just be the music of the future. Since Dirty Dozen came out with a particular style of music, there's been a whole lot of brass bands springing up all over the country, all over the world. This music is really catching on, because it's so different from all the music that you hear on radio. When you hear this music live, the feeling that you get is like nothing you ever felt before. With the new millennium, this music might be the music of the future. When you go hear this music, how good it make you feel?

  BM: It definitely cures what ails ya'.

It's physical. You gotta move. If you go there, by the time you hear the first not, like you say, it's healing music. I think this might be the music of the future.