Meanings
nounjazz funeral (plural jazz funerals)
plural jazz funerals
- A public funeral procession accompanied by a brass band, as traditionally performed in New Orleans, and typically involving a switch at a certain point from sombre to more upbeat music.
No other U.S. city has a tradition similar to the jazz funeral, but you can find cognates of the New Orleans funeral parade in the black urban neighborhoods of present-day Cuba and in Haiti.
2008, Ned Sublette, The World That Made New Orleans, Lawrence Hill Books, published 2009, page 110
Cite this entry
APA
jazz funeral. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/jazz%20funeral
MLA
“jazz funeral.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/jazz%20funeral. Accessed November 4, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “jazz funeral,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/jazz%20funeral.
Source: jazz funeral on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.