Wednesday, March 4, 2009

NolaFunk Lagniappe

Home of the Groove's "Three To Get Ready For Mardi Gras"
(a little late, but still good listening)

Mardi Gras' coming and it won't be long. . .so let's get further in the mood right now with some more Mardi Gras Indian-related music. . . .






101 Runners ft Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, Maple Leaf, 2/18/09


Big Chief Monk Boudreaux



















Indian Funk – a sound rooted in tribal rhythms, call-and-response chants, and New Orleans funk. Initially developed by The Wild Magnolias in the early 70s, today, the 101 Runners uphold and enrich this authentic and invigorating tradition. This night joined by another seminal pioneer of the Mardi Gras Indian sound (former member of The Wild Magnolias and current member of the Golden Eagles) Big Chief Monk Boudreax (who also played a significant role in The Wild Magnolias’ recordings), the 101 Runners kicked off the biggest celebration in the United States at the Maple Leaf.



George Porter Jr., Neil Young, Jazzfest, and What It Means to Miss New Orleans

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Jazzfest 2005 was another tuning point for me… the moment I really understood what it meant to miss New Orleans: I found it in the music. The Meters Reunion really drove things home. Soon, I found myself venturing to New Orleans regularly to absorb myself in the scene. Local bands, touring bands – practically went out the window. At any random moment, without hesitation, I’d be up for heading down to the Big Easy. Johnny Vidacovich is playing at the Maple Leaf; Bloc Party is coming to One-Eyed Jacks; it’s Wednesday; I’m going to New Orleans. I had also figured out how I was going to see Neil Young: Farm Aid. So I bought tickets to the 20th Anniversary Farm Aid slated for September 18th in Chicago. Then Hurricane Katrina hit. removed myself from the medical field and revived my faith in music.



Groovescape's Slideshow of Walter "Wolfman" Washington & Roadmasters @ Maple Leaf



Trumpeter Leroy Jones adds strings to his lush, romantic jazz



Appropriately, Jones is releasing "Sweeter Than a Summer Breeze" with a Valentine's Day show Saturday, Feb. 14 at Donna's Bar & Grill. Among the musicians joining him onstage is his wife, Katja Toivola, a trombonist. A native of Finland, she met Jones while in New Orleans researching her ethnomusicology master's thesis on brass band jazz. They've been together for 12 years, and married for three.

Jones knows brass band history -- he's part of it. In the early 1970s, he cut his teeth as the 12-year-old leader of the Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band. The late banjoist and raconteur Danny Barker organized the ensemble to rekindle interest in traditional brass band music among young musicians. The Fairview unit evolved into the Hurricane Brass Band, with Jones out front.



The Meters — Jackson, MS (10/5/1975)

the-meters

01 7:35 Wildflower
02 11:51 Thank You Falettin Me Be Mice Elf
03 8:46 Lively Up Yourself
04 13:58 Middle Of The Road%
05 5:35 People Say
06 19:54 It Ain’t No Use
07 6:35 E: Hey Pocky Way


Doucet, BeauSoleil take home Grammy



MC Trachiotomy and His Creepy Abode


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MC Trachiotomy is the king of New Orleans, sitting on a throne in a ramshackle palace full of huge mechanical puppets, 18th century antique instruments, a defunct (fully stocked) wallpaper store, a warehouse full of weird artifacts, and plus there’s a 24-hour taco truck in the backyard. It's called the Pearl Lounge, and it hosts a crazy live rock and hip-hop party every Sunday night from midnight to 6 AM in the upper Ninth Ward. He got his start in the screamo pyromaniac band Crash Worship, then in 1995 disappeared into the purple smoke of lo-fi percolation in a voice that sounds like the reason for which he named himself. He's toured the world repeatedly, loves the tropics and Greece, and played with the Butthole Surfers at their reunion shows last year. So hey, let's find out more about this guy.

His longtime buddy Quintron says he once "painted himself green and cradled an empty coke bottle like a baby as a stunt to ward off City clean up-crews. And he trained his dog Pablo to bark at smoke machines."



The Roots of New Orleans Funeral Music


Today’s YouTube masterpiece is a morbid bluesy number with a Spanish tinge that was published in 1857. I discovered it because Jelly Roll Morton quotes it in “Dead Man Blues.” This song is still around in the New Orleans funeral style that Jelly Roll was riffing on — you hear this tune as the gothic minor snippet before things get happy.

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