Jazz funeral is a common name for a funeral tradition with music which developed in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Drummers at the funeral of jazz legend Danny Barker.

The term "jazz funeral" was long in use by observers from elsewhere, but was generally disdained as inappropriate by most New Orleans musicians and practitioners of the tradition. The preferred description was "funeral with music"; while jazz was part of the music played, it was not the primary focus of the ceremony. This reluctance to use the term faded significantly in the final 15 years or so of the 20th century among the younger generation of New Orleans brass band musicians more familiar with the post-Dirty Dozen Brass Band funk influenced style than the older traditional jazz New Orleans style. (See also: Let Me Do My Thang: Rebirth Brass Band- a documentary filmed and edited by Keith Reynaud, Jr.)

The tradition arises from African spiritual practices, French and Spanish martial musical traditions, and uniquely African-American cultural influences. The tradition was widespread among New Orleanians across ethnic boundaries at the start of the 20th century. As the common brass band music became wilder in the years before World War I, some "white" New Orleanians considered the hot music disrespectful, and such musical funerals became rare among the city's caucasians. For much of the mid-20th century, the Catholic Church officially frowned on secular music at funerals, so for generations the tradition was largely confined to African American Protestant New Orleanians. After the 1960s it gradually started being practiced across ethnic and religious boundaries. Most commonly such musical funerals are done for individuals who are musicians themselves, connected to the music industry, or members of various social aid & pleasure clubs or