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"They hurl styles together with cavalier optimism, play with relentless bravura, and have zero patience for navel-gazing of any sort."
- The Guardian, London

"Whether you experience the Dozen on stage or on the street, they are guys anyone would feel lucky to meet in this lifetime. The music that comes through as they perform, resonates with feelings of familiarity, uniqueness, humor and daring - all at once, all the time."
- John Bell of Widespread Panic

"Brass-band music used to be a singular strain of New Orleans's cultural heritage. It was defined by its free-wheeling polyphony, its repertory of dirges and stomps and its appearance primarily at parades and funerals. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band has changed everything but the instrumentation to reinvent a modern omnivorous brass-band music that embraces be-bop, funk, and rhythm-and-blues. The arrangements are crisply focused and the music sounds at home in a club as well as on the march. Yet for all the changes, the Dirty Dozen has retained an essential part of the tradition - their performance still conveys a sense of communal jubilation."
- Jon Pareles, New York Times

"Since forming, they revolutionized the brass band idiom paving the way for a brass band revival in New Orlenas…The Dirty Dozen Brass Band has become an institution that represents New Orleans all across the world. Their songs have become standards."
- Off Beat, 4/01/2013

"Dirty Dozen Brass Band, celebrating 35 years with the release of their new Twenty Dozen album, slathered their brass band/funk/jazz stylings all over the Acura Stage. The nine-piece group sounded up-to-the-minute as it blared long sax-led jams punctuated with fierce trumpet jabs and filthy bottom-end passages from tuba and trombone. Festival, from the new album, incorporated Caribbean rhythms that spawned rampant rhumba-ing in the crowd…and an exuberant second-line medley extracted pure New Orleans joy from the masses."
- USA Today, 5/14/2012

"Throughout these new pieces, the ensemble horn work…is, as it has always been, stunning. The solos, particularly by Lewis and Harris, sizzle and pop and drive these tunes with tremendous intensity."
- Living Blues, August 2012 Issue

"Such versatility and the ability to take the music of Africa and the African diaspora and play it as if it were their own heritage is what separates the Dirty Dozen from other brass and funk bands. …After 35 wonderful years, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band's records are as fun as ever. At this point in its career, the Dirty Dozen has perfected playing along the fine line of being tight enough to keep dancers on their toes, but loose enough to sound like a New Orleans band enjoying itself."
- Gambit, 5/22/12

"For more than two decades, their ability to be funky - to play complex syncopated rhythms with a carefree flair that automatically makes listeners want to get up and dance - has never been in doubt. Although the Dirty Dozen uses traditional instrumentation, it doesn't sound traditional. By incorporating elements of modern jazz, pop, R&B and other genres into its style, the band has kept fresh what could easily have become a stodgy, time-bound formula. …the Dirty Dozen Brass Band continues to be a national treasure: steeped in both the past and the present, impossible to categorize, and mighty funky."
- New York Times