The Rebirth Brass Band's Phil Frazier is no stranger to rebirth.

He and his tuba returned to the stage after he suffered a stroke in 2008. A second stroke a decade later left him unable to perform and made speaking difficult, yet he is still the leader of the Grammy-winning band.

Now he's overcome another adversity: the novel coronavirus.

Frazier, 54, tested positive for COVID-19 while briefly hospitalized in March. He checked many of the demographic boxes that, statistically, put him at greater risk of a grim outcome: He is a middle-age black male with preexisting health conditions, including an immune system weakened by his strokes.

But early this week, he passed the 14-day mark with no symptoms. He says he feels great.

Well-liked and widely respected, Frazier and his partner of more than 30 years, Linda Tapp Porter, president of the Lady Buckjumpers Social Aid and Pleasure Club, are pillars of the New Orleans cultural community.

They are also no strangers to tragedy. More than one member of the Rebirth Brass Band has died young. In 2007, Frazier’s brother Kerwin James, the tuba player in the New Birth Brass Band, died of complications from a stroke at age 34.

In 2003, Porter’s son James Tapp Jr., better known as gangsta rapper Soulja Slim, was gunned down in front of the Gentilly Terrace duplex where she and Frazier live.

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When Frazier first got sick last month, Porter feared another tragedy was imminent. But once again, Frazier defied the odds.

He and his younger brother Keith, a bass drummer, had founded the Rebirth Brass Band with trumpeter Kermit Ruffins in 1983 as students at Joseph S. Clark Senior High School. They played for change in the French Quarter, aspiring to be the next Dirty Dozen Brass Band.

They paid their dues in social aid and pleasure club parades and late-night gigs at neighborhood bars. Eventually, they toured the globe. Their "Do Whatcha Wanna" and "Feel Like Funkin' It Up" are now Carnival season standards.

After Hurricane Katrina, the Rebirth Brass Band’s name and music embodied the city’s recovery. Frazier and his tuba, with “Rebirth” spelled out on the bell, adorned the 2007 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival’s commemorative Congo Square poster. The band's 2011 Basin Street Records album "Rebirth of New Orleans" won a Grammy Award.

Following his first stroke, in December 2008, Frazier went through extensive rehabilitation to regain the ability to play tuba. Within months, he was back at it full-time.

In November 2018, he suffered another, more debilitating stroke. Eighteen months later, he hasn’t returned to the stage.

But he's still high-energy, hard-working and social. A longtime member of Zulu, he and Porter were the krewe’s governor and governess in 2018. Frazier rode again with Zulu this year, when only a handful of coronavirus cases had been diagnosed across the country.

On March 7, Frazier attended the New Orleans Original Brass Fest in Armstrong Park. He came home with a violent cough. Porter suspected that pollen from the park's oak trees had aggravated his sinuses.

“He’s got bad sinuses, and I thought his sinuses were messing with him,” she said. “I had never heard that kind of a cough before. He couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t sleep.”

By the next day, the coughing had subsided. But Frazier wasn’t himself.

He didn’t have much of an appetite. His breathing was labored. And he was uncharacteristically lethargic, sitting on the sofa watching TV.

“Even though he’s had two strokes, he’s still a lively person,” Porter said. “Phil don’t just sit around.”

She became increasingly concerned but not about the possibility that he had COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by coronavirus. “I thought he was about to catch another stroke,” she said.

She took him to an Ochsner urgent care facility on March 15. He wasn’t running a fever and tested negative for the flu. A chest X-ray revealed that his lungs were clear. “They said his lungs were beautiful,” Porter said.

He was sent home with a recommendation to try Mucinex and nasal spray. They didn’t help. That week, he still wasn’t breathing right and fell getting out of bed.

So about 1 a.m. March 20, Porter drove him to University Medical Center. Doctors put him on oxygen as Porter described his symptoms. Given his medical history and his slight fever, he was tested for the coronavirus.

He was prescribed hydroxycholoroquine, Porter said, and discharged from the hospital on the afternoon of March 22. A day later, they received the results from his coronavirus test. He was positive.

They hunkered down in isolation. Within a couple days, his condition improved significantly. His breathing was normal again. His appetite returned, as did his energy. “He’s been looking good ever since,” Porter said. “The old Phil is back.”

When he passed the 14-day mark without symptoms, Porter shared the happy news on Facebook.

The local music community has not escaped coronavirus. Bounce deejay Oliver "Black N Mild" Stokes Jr., 44, and jazz piano patriarch Ellis Marsalis Jr., 85, both died of complications related to COVID-19.

Others, like Frazier, have gotten sick but survived. He plans to stay quarantined, venturing out only occasionally to check his post office box or “wave at his mama,” Porter said. “He hurries up back home.”

Before the pandemic, Frazier had started a new rehabilitation regimen in the hopes of being able to play music again. When the pandemic passes, he’ll likely resume his rehab.

“That’s a strong man,” Porter said. “He made it through all that. He’s good. All we need to do is get him back playing that tuba.”