Ouch.
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band’s Efrem Towns is recuperating at home in New Orleans after a vicious dog attack that may leave the trumpeter permanently scarred.
Towns was outside baritone sax player Roger Lewis’ Atlanta motel room after a gig, he said, in the early hours of Sunday, November 18, when he was blindsided by a large Rottweiler.
“He came over to my room to collect some money,” Lewis said, “and he was whistling while he knocked on my door. The room next door was open, and the dog just came out and grabbed him in his private area, and started chewing away on him.”
“I didn’t know if it was a dog, wolverine, bear, mongoose or what. I just knew something had me,” Towns said.
“It happened so fast that I was pretty much in shock. I went into survival mode,” he said. “The adrenaline was pumping, and I grabbed myself and came up with a whole bunch of blood.” The dog’s owner came out of the adjacent room then, he said, and between the two of them, they were able to subdue the animal.
Police and an ambulance arrived and rushed the musician to Atlanta’s Grady Hospital, where he received thirty stitches in his genital area. He’ll see a urologist early next week, Towns said, who will determine whether Towns will lose his left testicle or not. Towns has health insurance through his wife, Tracie, he said.
Friday evening, the rest of the Dirty Dozen was in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, to perform as part of the Bud Light Winter Concert Series. Town was unable to join the band onstage for scheduled gigs this past week at the Maple Leaf and at the Pay It Forward concert to benefit victims of Hurricane Sandy, which took place at the Mahalia Jackson Theater November 21.
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band formed in 1977, and is credited with inventing the contemporary, funk-infused brass band sound. The band has been a featured guest on albums with David Bowie, Elvis Costello, the Black Crowes and other major artists, and has toured over 30 countries on five continents. In May 2012, the Dirty Dozen celebrated its 35th anniversary with the release of the album Twenty Dozen.
The band’s next scheduled gig is December 28, at dba on Frenchmen Street. Towns isn’t sure, yet, whether he’ll be up for performing by then.
“I could probably practice,” while convalescing, “he said. “But I’m very uncomfortable right now. I’m basically immobilized – it’s hard getting around. I’m kind of miserable.”
The experience, horrific as it was, hasn’t soured Towns on dogs. He and his wife own five dogs themselves - three miniature schnauzers, one standard schnauzer and a mixed breed, and when reached by phone Friday evening, the trumpeter’s daughter’s dachshund was also visiting.
“I’m a dog person,” he said. “And even though I got bit, I hope they don’t put that dog to sleep.”
As he sees it, the moral to the story is this:
“Watch out for the room next door,” Towns said. “You never know what’s going to come out.”
http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2012/11/dirty_dozen_brass_band_trumpet.html#incart_river
