NolaFunk Lagniappe

Bingo! Parlour Profile: THE TIN MEN featuring THE VALPARAISO MEN'S CHORUS

The Tin Men are one of New Orleans’ most interesting and exciting bands. Consisting of Alex McMurray on guitar and vocals, Matt Perrine on sousaphone and washboard, and Chaz Leary on washboard and vocals, the band has riveted audiences with its own brand of music. Those who caught their late night performances during the 2002 Jazz Fest season hailed the group as “the best thing seen during Jazz Fest.”

The Valparaiso Men's Chorus Guano and Nitrates is a rare and strange artifact. For reasons no one can clearly remember, it was decided to assemble a large group of men for the purpose of making a recording of sea shanties. The Monday after Thanksgiving was chosen to maximize the size of the group, and the Mermaid Lounge was chosen as the site, due to its proximity to recording equipment and alcohol. We acquired the last two reels of 1/2 inch tape for sale in Orleans Parish and went to work.




Home of the Groove's "EARL PALMER'S UP-TO-DATE FUNKY THING"

What I want to do here is focus on just a few examples of Earl Palmer's playing that demonstrate the more poly-rhythmic aspects of his style and express the uniquely New Orleans side of this incredible groove-maker. A deeply funky feel seems to be an innate characteristic of the city's best drummers, so ingrained in the local culture that to second line is second nature. With antecedents going back several hundred years through the Caribbean (Cuba and Haiti) to Africa via the tragic diaspora of slavery, that rhythmic heritage was perpetuated in the weekly dance and drum circles allowed in Congo Square and the secretive societies of the Mardi Gras Indian gangs in city. They arose in jazz, New Orleans' great improvisatory well-spring, through street parade musicians, moving on to shape the distinct local R&B flavor from the 1950s to the present day, as funk in the city’s music has become increasingly overt. Excuse me for trying to cram several centuries of musical ferment and evolution into a few sentences. Anyway, I don't think it's an overstatement or simplistic to say that Earl Palmer is a vital part of that musical continuum and the first drummer to inject both second line syncopations and the turbo-charged, driving pulse of rock 'n' roll into the mass appeal popular music that quickly overtook much of the world, influencing myriad musicians and forever changing listeners' attitudes and expectations, getting backfields in motion across racial and cultural divides, and uniting us in universal worship of the beat.

Second line fetes famed photog Michael P. Smith

It seemed fitting that a man who immortalized second lines in photographs was celebrated with one of his own. And so it was for Michael P. Smith, as hundreds gathered on a warm Saturday afternoon outside of the Sportman’s Corner at Second and Dryades Streets to pay their respects to one of New Orleans finest photographers.

CHECK OUT MORE PHOTOS OF THE SECOND LINE HERE.

New Orleans's musical scene that's Free and Freeing

Squeezing the dollar bill until the eagle grins has become more common than ever both here and around the country. Everything seems to go up except incomes. Fortunately, New Orleanians don't have to sacrifice hearing live music just because budgets are tight. That's never truer than during the lovely fall months with festivals, outdoor concerts and second lines in abundance. Daytime and early evening shows also offer the opportunity to share the music with the kids and have them experience New Orleans' many contributions to the world including our greatest gift, jazz.

Something Old, Something New: Astral Project - 30 Years of Jazz

Gasoline was only 63 cents a gallon when Astral Project, which is now regarded by many as New Orleans premiere modern jazz ensemble, was formed. The world and this city have changed dramatically since that time - Tipitina's and the Neville Brothers were just kicking in and Katrina was simply a girl's name. Yet through the decades Astral Project's music has remained the same in terms of its high level of musicianship and creativity. While folks may claim their favorite album, it is remarkable that the group has never put out a bad CD. The latest effort, "Blue Streak," the release of which will be celebrated -- along with the anniversary -- at Snug Harbor on Saturday, October 11, is no exception to that rule. From the first cut, saxophonist Tony Dagradi's "Cannonball," the music grabs one's attention with its strong melody, freshness and clean sound. It's just plain good. The group with Dagradi, guitarist Steve Masakowski, bassist James Singleton and drummer Johnny Vidacovich is perhaps most noted for its members' abilities to sense each others musical directions and to utilize this attribute to enhance the overall flow and sound. They are one entity on another Dagradi number, the title cut, "Blue Streak." On this burner, each individual's efforts remain wonderfully distinctive even within the tight ensemble work.

Bingo! Parlour Profile: THE NOISICIAN COALITION

Founded by Mattvaughan Black (aka Mr. The Turk of The New Orleans Bingo! Show) on Lundi Gras of 2005 as an evolving experiment in the random collaboration between people, sound and rhythm, The Noisician Coalition has since blossomed from its original seven member lineup to a rotating cast of up to fifty members at any given march. Armed with an arsenal of modified bullhorns, handmade synthesizers, and found-object percussion assembled by Black himself, this “post-apocalyptic communist clown army marching band,” fiercely bedecked in the red, white and black of a trusty RCA cable, assemble themselves four times a year to engage in some of the most cataclysmic rhythms ever to be witnessed in the streets of New Orleans’ French Quarter.

Apart from being special guests in The New Orleans Bingo! Show's presentation of THE BLACK SHOW on Friday night and marching in the Voodoo Parade on Saturday afternoon, expect to see this renegade marching troupe performing sporadically around the Voodoo Experience grounds for all three days of the festival. Making their base camp / village headquarters backstage at The Bingo! Parlour, they shouldn't be hard to find. Elsewhere on the grounds? Odds are good you'll hear them before you see them.

Is Christmas ever truly out of season? Maybe. But it's hard not to watch this ill-advised 2007 Christmas special starring The Noisician Coalition over and over again. Even in October. Or July. Or... Well, you get it. Please, enjoy responsibly:




Listen, Leah Chase Will Say Like This

Leah Chase has been lauded as a keeper of the flame of Creole cooking, and never more so than after Hurricane Katrina when all of the city’s indigenous food traditions seemed so threatened. Fortunately, Chase’s living legacy is still in practice at her restaurant, Dooky Chase, and it has also been well documented in a series of books compiling her recipes and stories from the Creole kitchen.

Leroy Jones: A New Orleans State of Mind

"I'm not sure but I think all music comes from New Orleans."
—Lee Dorsey

Jazz trumpeter, vocalist, and New Orleans native Leroy Jones takes after his 'mother' in the best possible ways. He's charming, generous and kind and has the gift to musically move you from tear-in-the-eye emotion to dancing in your seat. Jones also has the optimistic attitude of many New Orleans residents. He seems to look on the bright side of things, even the humid late summer weather. He wouldn't say the weather was bad, just hot. "You all have no idea what summer is," he laughs. And Jones definitely knows how to have fun, Big Easy style. His joy and passion during a performance is contagious even to the stodgiest among them.

This week's music picks from Basin Street

Check out this week’s selections from Nolaphile friends, Basin Street Records. This week we get to share work from artists Kermit Ruffins, Henry Butler, and Jon Cleary.

Bingo! Parlour Profile: BONES

Little is known of the disreputable duo from Baton Rouge who perform under the moniker of "BONES." Here's what some have said...

"The Baton Rouge, Louisiana, duo Bones work a marvelously demented swampcore-blues-torture sound." -LA Weekly

"Bones works a sticky, oozing trash-garage wallop that, despite the spare two-man blitzkrieg attack force and fealty to their home state's swampy blues grinds, arcs almost into shadowy Black Sabbath-esque territory, a region fraught with menace, corruption, and who-gives-a-damn abandon." -Inland Empire Weekly

“The propulsive rock of Bones is covered in Miller's fuzz and the crash of Scott Campbell's cymbals. The duo rolls along on a railroad of blues and stops on a dime. The music is soft while Miller sings his grievances, but then it gets loud and nasty when his steam evaporates…" -LiveNewOrleans.com

"The White Stripes and the Black Keys might be the most visible incarnations of the two-person band, grinding out sinewy, overdriven blues with minimal instrumentation, but Baton Rouge's Bones is by far the dirtiest." -Nashville Scene

"Bones comes off like a sex-crazed pit bull broken free of its leash: focused, furious, and practically unstoppable." -Antigravity Magazine (New Orleans)

It is worth noting that Mike Miller is also a member of Liquidrone, the megaphone-driven art house rock band that, in many ways, spawned the quieter little sister whom we've all come to love and know as The New Orleans Bingo! Show... a group with whom both Miller and Campbell have performed.That being said, please enjoy this classic Liquidrone video for the classy classic, "Harley and a Mail Order Bride." (Keep your eyes peeled for familiar faces and Mike's mighty, mighty air guitar.)


Beat, vitality of blues key to Bryan Lee

On his 2007 album, “Katrina Was Her Name,” Bryan Lee includes an exuberant version of Robert Parker’s already-infectious “Barefootin’.”

The problem, as Lee sees it, is that not enough people — especially young musicians — would have recognized Parker’s name in that last sentence, and that’s why the guitarist recorded the song. (Born and raised in New Orleans, Parker was a top sideman in the Crescent City from 1949 through the 1958, when he started his solo career, which peaked with 1966’s top 10 hit “Barefootin’.”)