Jazz Funeral

[Pika]

Bittersweet bay rum, bourbon, and a host of funeral flowers with a touch of graveyard dirt, magnolia and Spanish Moss.

 

Floral-magnolia(?) very strong at first, then fading. I really didn't get the alcohol other reviewers had. The moss note is more prominent on me in dry-down.

[torischroeder9]

In the imp: Booze first, moss and dirt next, followed by mixed flowers. 

 

On my skin:

 

Wet, the rum rises to the top of the blend on my skin, followed by a dirt note that immediately gets lost as it's drying. Once dry, however, the dirt note reemerges, though the spiced rum is the most pronounced note. Additionally, the dirt note isn't harsh to my nose, so I'm guessing that I'm "sensing" some of the flowers in the blend even if I can't pick them out as individual notes. 

 

About a half hour in, while the rum still dominates, there is no trace of the sharper, "fumier" aspects of alcohol spirits. It's the rich, mellow, faintly spicy and faintly sweet parts of bay rum. The soil note is still prominent, but I'm now able to pick out a floral note -- maybe lily, and maybe magnolia?

 

However, after another hour, the florals also fade, and it's once again rummy dirt -- which is one of the nicest dirt notes I've tried so far, but I'm still not sure if I want to smell like rummy dirt. 

 

Low to medium throw. Not sure I'm going to keep this on my arm long enough to test the wear length (but it's not super short). 

[donkehpoo]

Wet: Lime. STRONG lime. Some bay rum in the background, but really just a lot of lime. (... I'm aware it's not a note listed, but it really smells like lime.)

 

Dry: Oh no, where did the lime go!? There's just a super faint bay rum scent now. It's pretty clean smelling; not getting any dirt or moss notes.

[follis]

Jazz Funeral starts off with some fruity florals and dirt accord, before heading off into mossy territory with a sweet fruit floral note which may be the magnolia. It's really quite pleasant overall. At the fade down none of the dirt and moss remain, leaving a fig-like, creamy vanilla blend which is lovely and fresh. I really didn't notice the bay rum or bourbon in this, and it doesn't end very green on me either.

I'll probably wear it more often if it was mostly the fade down part, and had a stronger throw, but perhaps I'll be keeping the imp after all.

[Juliamon]

This one has never been on my radar due to multiple mentions of florals in the description, but I've been getting a lot of fruity-floral samples from various houses lately and getting along reasonably well with most of them, so when this showed up as a frimp with my TLU bottles I actually got a bit excited!

 

None of the booze shows up on me, nor does the moss really have much presence; it's all sweet dirt and clean, fruity florals. It dries down less fruity and a bit more floral, but not so much that I feel the need to scrub. It's gone entirely after a couple hours anyway (though the current heat wave may be affecting it) so it's not a big deal. The dirt note is what really makes this move from "meh, swap" to "oh, this'll be nice for special occasions!" BPAL's dirt note is absolutely my favorite of any house, it makes everything better IMO, and in this case adds a sophisticated edge to the otherwise-generic florals. Tucking the imp away for the next time I'm going somewhere where I need to make a good first impression. Thanks, labbies!

[jojocialist]

wet: oh sNAP.  bay rum, magnolia, moss. peppery and booze-y with an undercurrent of strong aftershave. little bit lemony. 
drydown: bay rum and magnolia. intoxicating, complex without blowing up my sinuses, just the right amount of citrus to feel fresh.
verdict: a few hours in and it's still as strong and heady as ever. i really like this. honestly, i'm typically kinda "meh" about trying New Orleans-y scents because i live here (i don't know why that's a thing with me, but it is). but this scent kinda turned my attitude around on that. 

[monocainsheresy]

Boozy flowers, moss, and loam. Lemons and spice somewhere in there. Nice, but underwhelming given the praise I've heard of it.

[Hades_Girlfriend]

This mostly smells like graveyard dirt and some kind of citrussy something on me. It starts out like heavily artificial smelling citrus toilet cleaner, mellows down to artificial citrus candy and becomes sweeter and sweeter (starts out very sour) until it is more like a sweet citrus cake or something like that. The does the same thing, has a strong dirt and kind of wet/fresh/cold touch to it in the beginning and mellows down a bit, putting the dirt smell more in the background. I kinda like it this way. I bought it, since I wanted to experiment with dirt scents, after trying out Snake Oil, that had a dirt note that unfortunately mellowed down, before it aged it all away and now does not smell like dirt at all (although it is still beautiful!), and Zombie, that have a stronger dirt note, but still not enough since I apparantly LOVE dirt! And I quite enjoy citrus as well! :) Jazz Funeral sounded both beautiful, complex and the most wearable for everyday life out of the cemetery/dirty scents, so went with that and the dirt note does NOT dissapoint! The citrus toilet cleaner stage is a bit meh, and I am sad not to get anything of the booze and flowers, but maybe it comes with more aging. It is kind of a cold citrus scent - if that makes scent - because the dirt note gives it a cold vibe, reminding me of stone, grey skies and the like. And the citrus is most of the time a bit like one of those hard candies for a soar throat, which again reminds me of cold weather - like not winter or even autumn, since autumn is kind of a warmer feeling to me, but right before winter turns spring (februare/march/sometimes april here in Denmark) or in the grey part between autumn and winter (like november/december). So winter, but with out the snow, and with the last of autumn or the spring soon to happen. :) I quite like this! It is not a totally cozy scent, might even be slightly depressing, since it is all has grey and coldness to it, it even has a lonely feeling to it, but I kinda like it still. I am not gonna wear it terrible often for everyday use, since citrus and dirt is not normally what I go for in an everyday perfume, and I am most often not in the mood for something that mostly reminds me of cold and lonely days, but I will wear it, when the occasion and mood calls for it! I bought it as an imp, and I will definetly keep on to it and use it. Unless it will age in a way, that brings out something else, I will probably not be buying a bottle, but maybe another imp, once I run out - but imps usually lasts me a long time, if they are not everyday faves. But I will have to experiment with other dirt scents to see, which one will become a fave! I am planning on trying to layer this with other stuff, that might make it a better scent mood wise for me, because I really like the dirt and the citrus as scents, so maybe I can make it a fave through layering?! I will give it 3,5 out of 5!

[puellacaerulea]

In the imp, I mostly get damp soil and moss combined with sweet florals. Really sweet florals. Like, candy-sweet florals. As it wears, the bay rum and bourbon show up and start to mellow the florals a bit. Overall impression is an earthy, slightly boozy, noticeably floral combo. Definitely an evocative scent once that cloyingly sweet phase passes, but not enough for me to need more than the imp.

[freyasfae]

Damn, I do love the BPAL graveyard dirt note. It's just so unique. That's what I get right at first, but then the sweet booze quickly marches in. Giving it some drydown time (about 30 minutes), the sweet booze mellows out significantly and it becomes a well-rounded evocative scent - it's got the lurking sweet decay (sounds bad but if you love NOLA, you get it) with the spice from the rum and the gardenia giving it a more sophisticated feel - which is very NOLA in my opinion.

[skyturtles]

I have an aged imp from 2014. As others have noted, it's not as boozy as it is when fresh. There's only the slightest hint of cocktail, and that might just be my imagination. I'm not a big fan of florals, but the magnolia and miscellaneous other funeral flowers are blended so nicely with the other notes. I'm also not a big fan of mosses in general, as they make me nauseous, but it's surprisingly not bothering me here. This would be a nice, everyday, spring scent! It's a garden party that got rained on, it's melancholy and sweet at the same time. I can't stop sniffing myself; everytime I do, I get something a little different. Two funeral directors I work with like it on me as well (though we don't live anywhere near NOLA, just sayin').  I'm hesitant to purchase a bottle however, since this imp is so old... I guess I could consider putting one away for some years, but I'd rather just keep an eye out to see if anybody's selling.

Edited March 5, 2022 by skyturtles

[roseus]

In the imp this smelled like green apple to me which really threw me off. On my skin I think it's more lime and florals, it still had a fruity quality to it. Pretty sure I get some lily. There's a humid, sort of waxy quality in there. I also get a bit of mossy greenness and I think a hint of mint. Green leafy mint, not toothpaste. I don't get any dirt on my skin. Overall much fresher than I anticipated. 

[LavenderCoffee]

It has been too long since I've worn Jazz Funeral, I forgot how lovely it is. Herbal bay rum and bourbon and lush magnolia with a backdrop of mossy earth! It's just perfect. Let me just find a magnolia tree to sit under while I sip my drink.

[crow-toes]

Oh this one is fascinating. I don't get a ton of the rum notes on my skin - which is what originally piqued my interest in this scent, and what I was picking up a lot of when wet.

 

Instead I'm getting all of the nature notes - spicy in a pine resin sort of way, fairly fresh damp earth-y as well. This makes me pretty nostalgic for the Colorado mountains of my childhood, especially when foresty dirt trails are still holding some dampness from rain. Not an every day sort of scent, but absolutely interesting. Definitely going on the wishlist for a bottle someday.