The Dirty Dozen incorporated funk and bebop into the traditional New Orleans jazz style, and has since been a major influence on local music.

[2] The Dirty Dozen Brass Band grew out of the youth music program established by Danny Barker at New Orleans' Fairview Baptist Church.

In 1972, Barker started the Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band to provide young people with a positive outlet for their energies.

The band began playing regular gigs at the Seventh Ward club Daryl's, and at the Glasshouse, a bar in a black neighborhood of Uptown New Orleans.

Later recordings saw them joined by a variety of special guests including Elvis Costello, DJ Logic, Norah Jones, and Danny Barker.

On August 29, 2006, the Dozen released What's Going On, their version of the 1971 Marvin Gaye album What's Going On as a response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina that struck New Orleans one year earlier.

The band appears in performance footage, and Gregory Davis is interviewed, in the 2005 documentary Make It Funky!, which presents a history of New Orleans music.