Congo Square 2003

The Eureka Brass Bandby Bill Pajaud The Eureka Brass Band, a leading brass band in New Orleans for 55 years (1920-1975), featured among its 11 members many notable New Orleans players - including a cornet player and sometime leader named "Sweet Lips Willie" Pajaud. In 1970 the band, minus Willie Pajaud who passed on in 1960, played the first New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival with Mahalia Jackson second lining joyously in front. His son, Bill, was born five years after the band was formed and grew up with it. Today Bill Pajaud is considered one of the foremost artists of his generation, recognized for masterfully preserving the spiritual essence of the New Orleans brass band tradition and its part in the life cycle of New Orleanians. His stately portrait of his father's band commemorates Eureka's performance at the birth of the Jazz Festival. It's grace derives from simultaneously conveying group dignity and individual expressiveness. Pajaud is a Master Artist on the Advisory