As family and friends stepped down the stairs of the Fifth African Baptist Church after a three-hour service celebrating the life of Dinerral Shavers, they were met with a street full of people and the mighty yet mournful sound of horns blowing “Just a Closer Walk with Thee.” It was a powerful tribute for the young man, just 25, who had contributed to the New Orleans community as a snare drummer with the Hot 8 Brass Band, music teacher at L.E. Rabouin Career Magnet High School, an entrepreneur, a father, and a husband. Shavers was tragically gunned down on December 28, 2006.
Students from his school wore t-shirts declaring Shavers “No. 1 band teacher,” and others raised signs bearing his image. One person, speaking for all of us stunned by the violent crime, waved a placard that simply read, “Enough!”
It was difficult to count the number of musicians who accompanied the horse-drawn hearse down the street. Almost all of this city’s brass bands were represented with Rebirth picking up the rear. Veterans like clarinetist Dr. Michael White and trumpeter Gregg Stafford stood alongside younger guys from To Be Continued Brass Band and the stalwarts of the New Birth Brass Band.
In many ways, the always-smiling, much-respected Shavers represented a link in the tradition. He had organized Rabouin High School’s first and impressively large at 80 members marching band, and was reportedly excited that it had already been booked for several Mardi Gras parades.
“He was a very energetic person,” says tuba man Benny Pete, the leader of the Hot 8 Brass Band. “He loved to keep busy.” Pete notes that beyond Shavers’ work with the band and teaching, he also had his own car wash. “When he was a kid he used to hustle doing it, so when he got older he made a business out of it.
“He had a good spirit; he had a real good spirit,” Pete continues, remembering that through the group’s often troubled times, Shavers rallied. “He always lifted the band up. Whenever we were down, he would always be the one to say, ‘C’mon man, we got to keep on moving. We’ve got to do this.’”
Shavers’ drum will be heard again on a new Hot 8 album with an anticipated Jazz Fest release. His solid rhythms will drive a single from the disc, tentatively titled, “How You Gonna Cross That Water?”, that will be ready to bounce for Mardi Gras.
