“Big Fat Woman” (PDF) from the Rebirth Brass Band album, Feel Like Funkin’ It Up

As of late 2022, Rebirth Brass Band’s second album Feel Like Funkin’ It Up is only available through digital music platforms. Originally released in 1989 on Rounder Records, the roughly 40-minute album was produced for vinyl and cassette formats that apparently have never been reissued. A CD version of the album was also produced - featuring the bonus track “Big Fat Woman” that utilizes a whoopin’ 5 minutes of extended formatting - and became the primary source for digital distribution. In 2010, Concord Music Group acquired the Rounder Records catalog, and thus any superfluous material regarding the original album’s packaging decisions appears to have been lost in the corporate shuffle.

For instance: Was “Big Fat Woman” included in the original CD liner notes? And why doesn’t Tuba Phil Frazier have any legs on the album cover? Take a look!

To the unsuspecting listener, “Big Fat Woman” sounds a lot like Young Tuxedo Brass Band clarinetist John Casimer’s “Whoopin’ Blues” but with lyrics and a shout section - perhaps that is all it actually is, the byproduct of repeated performances with some added levity. As such, the lyrics may have been passed around for years without proper credit and has since been retconned into the public domain. However, Treme Brass Band’s 1990 album I Got A Big Fat Woman, released by Sound Of New Orleans, contains what many musicians regard as the definitive recording of the tune and yet even the reissued album liner notes have no mention of the titular song or its origin. As of late 2022, the only proper writing credit for Rebirth’s “Big Fat Woman” has been given by the user-submitted resource, Discogs.com, which simply lists it as “Traditional.”

Here’s a YouTube video of Treme Brass Band trumpeter Kenneth Terry continuing this tradition with the Young Fellaz Brass Band:

Recommended reading: Roll With It: Brass Bands in the Streets of New Orleans by Matt Sakakeeny. Published by Duke University Press