Dirty Dozen Band Creates Its Own Tradition : Jazz: The group, in Long Beach tonight, has unapologetically taken the Bourbon Street sound in new directions.

It’s become something of a fashion statement these days to pledge allegiance to the music of New Orleans. The city has long been a birthing ground for particularly idiosyncratic strains of jazz, blues, rock, funk and country, but in recent years the rest of the world has caught up with the Big Easy’s rich, longstanding traditions.

Along with such relatively high-profile compadres as the Neville Brothers, Dr. John, and French-Canadian transplant Daniel Lanois, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band--which performs tonight at the Foothill in Long Beach--has done its share in bringing the celebratory, polyrhythmic sound of the Crescent City to a wider audience.

Formed as a traditional, New Orleans-styled horn octet in 1978, the Dirty Dozen later added elements of be-bop, swing, soul and funk to the intoxicating sound of Bourbon Street.

“We didn’t get any gigs as a traditional band,” Dirty Dozen trumpeter-bandleader Gregory Davis said in a recent phone interview from a San Diego hotel room.

“There were a couple dozen other traditional bands happening, and we were just another one of them,” he said. “Nobody was taking us seriously, so we ended up trying other music at rehearsals--some Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis and some James Brown, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin. That’s when we started to feel each other and click.”

Signed by the small Concord Jazz label in 1984, the group made its debut with the exuberant “My Feet Can’t Fail Me Now” album, which showcased the Dirty Dozen’s rootsy, partying side. Still, some jazz and brass-band traditionalists all but screamed blasphemy at the Dirty Dozen’s melting-pot sound.

“Oh yeah, we got it from all angles,” Davis said with a chuckle. “We got it from everyone but the people that were hiring us. . . . So we said, ‘The hell with so-and-so, he’s not the one paying.’ The people that paid wanted to hear what we were doing, so we went with that, and the gigs started rolling in.”

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After another album release, this time on Rounder Records, the Dirty Dozen landed a major-label deal with Columbia Records in 1989. As the group’s reputation grew, so did the demand for its services among rock audiences and musicians.

The Dirty Dozen went on to play bills with the Grateful Dead, the Dead Milkmen and 2 Live Crew, and to appear as guests on albums by Elvis Costello, Phil Alvin, Manhattan Transfer and Poi Dog Pondering.

“The rock cats didn’t look at us as a traditional band or a jazz band or what have you,” Davis said. “They fell in love with the sound of what we were doing as musicians. With them, we didn’t have to go through all that crap that we did with the jazz cats; they respected us for what we were doing.”

As the Dirty Dozen continues to tour and record, its sound has matured into a refined groove that finally has won respect from the jazz community. Perhaps the transcendent moment of redemption for Davis came when jazz trumpet legend Dizzy Gillespie--a boyhood hero--appeared on “Voodoo,” the group’s Columbia debut.

“When Dizzy and I first met, it was dreamlike,” he said. “Here was a person I wanted to be like, and I got to meet him and talk to him and shake his hand. We actually got to be friends over the years. . . .

“You can read the books and what people have to say about someone, but it’s not like meeting them and being around them. When he consented to be on the album, I didn’t even know how to say thank you. He came to the studio, and he was a jokester, a prankster, but at the same time he was educational. He wasn’t shy about saying: ‘Look, man, don’t do that. Maybe you should try this.’ And I really appreciated that.”

The Dirty Dozen continued to grow musically. The group’s 1991 album, “Open Up,” contained sophisticated, original compositions that signaled a new, more serious direction. Particularly impressive was Davis’ ambitiously extended, Ellington-influenced suite, “The Lost Souls of Southern Louisiana.” No longer could jazz elitists deny the Dirty Dozen’s excellence.

So it seemed curious that last year’s follow-up, “Jelly,” was a collection of songs written by Jelly Roll Morton, the self-proclaimed “inventor of jazz,” and one of the most important figures in New Orleans’ musical heritage.

“We were heading in the direction where we were going to do another album where we experimented with original compositions,” said Davis. “But then Columbia came up with the idea to do a Jelly Roll Morton album. It was a good idea--very educational.

“Then--after we recorded it and before it came out--they decided it was something they didn’t want to promote, for whatever reason. We got into a big argument, a big blowup about that and parted company.”

Davis said the group is now biding its time, waiting for its contract with Columbia to expire at the end of this year. He hopes to be signed by another label and have a new album out early in 1995.

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Musically, more changes are in store that could further outrage the Dirty Dozen’s traditional-minded critics--Davis revealed plans to add keyboards, bass guitar and full trap-kit drums to the lineup for its next album. The group had, to this point, retained the conventional brass-band instrumentation of snare and bass drum for percussion, sousaphone as the bass voice and no electric instruments.

But after years of work, and with critical acclaim for the group outweighing the voices of the naysayers, Davis is secure enough to proceed in the way he sees fit.

“I really didn’t have a sense that we’d been accepted by anyone until I had to replace two of the guys in 1991,” he said. (Sousaphonist Kirk Joseph and trombonist Charles Joseph were replaced by Julius McKee and Revert Andrew, respectively.)

“When we had to replace these people, we found dozens of sousaphone and trombone players who actually knew what we played and were up on what we were doing,” he said. “That shocked and touched me. I was really surprised. That’s when I had a sense that maybe we have done something, maybe we have had some influence after all.”

* The Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Phil Alvin perform tonight at the Foothill, 1922 Cherry Ave., Long Beach. 9 p.m. $12. (310) 984-8349.