Terence Blanchard- given ‘choices,’ chooses New Orleans time and again
Grammy-winning trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard chose to live in New Orleans, bring the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz that he heads to the city of his birth and for the first time record an album here. His decisions continue to impact and shine a light on New Orleans as revealed on his 2007 album A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina) and furthered on his new, soon-to-be-released CD, simply titled Choices. We also benefit from his residency as Blanchard kicks off his upcoming world-wide tour on July 31, 2009 at the Ogden Museum of Southern Arts where he and his band recorded the disc.
“One of the things that I’m trying to do with this particular CD is not talk about what happened in New Orleans and the negative stuff,” Blanchard explains. “I want to deal with all the positive things that have been goin’ on. My whole thing is to bring up the debate so we can rebuild the city in such a way so it is much stronger and so we can be the beacon of cultural excellence that we’ve been for decades.”
Encore performance: K-Doe daughter struggles to keep music playing at Mother-in-Law Lounge
Betty Fox, daughter of Ernie and Antoinette K-Doe, reopened her mother’s 7th Ward iconic Mother-in-Law Lounge July 4.
Commercial break: The Radiators♫
No, it's not that I'm going commercial. But I do like to draw some attention to the new album by The Radiators, "The Lost Southlake Sessions". I got sent a copy and I'm allowed to give you one song of the album. And I like it.
The Radiators are from New Orleans, Louisiana. And they sound like it too. If, besides Southern Rock, you dig the NOLA vibe, you should definitely give this a try. These guys have been around since 1978 and still play with the same line-up. They released several albums, mostly on small labels. According to Allmusic "Law Of The Fish", their only major label release (and thus, the band probably having access to all the right means), is the one to have.
This is New Orleans Rock alright. An influence which can be heard in Little Feat music as well. And of course on any Anders Osborne album.
New Orleans Voices Podcast: Cyril Neville Interview Cyril Neville is a member of the Neville Brothers, and the Wild Tchoupitoulas Mardi Gras Indian tribe. He also leads his own band, Cyril Neville and Tribe 13.
Jenn AckermanThe trumpeter Terence Blanchard runs an informal but important academy. Since the beginning of the 1990s his bands have always been strong, if sometimes overcontrolled. But now that he’s a full generation older than most of the musicians working with him — and those musicians have musically evolved from education and influences different from the ones that formed him — his music is feeling energized in a new way.
Live: Marcus Roberts Trio at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola Marcus Roberts Trio
Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola
Wednesday, July 22
You should see this place, Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, up yonder at Lincoln Center, first of all just to behold the not-too-distant future of venue-naming (five years from now Tiny Masters of Today will be headlining Kurt Cobain Drink Mountain Dew or We'll Kill You Arena), but more importantly to regard the view behind the band onstage, looking down on Central Park and, at the 7:30 p.m. show at least, slowly, romantically darkening from broad daylight to sunset. This is alarmingly idyllic, and only more so with a telepathic piano trio lustily dialing up "East of the Sun (And West of the Moon)."
Brass Bands.
But the big jobbing-gig thing here, kind of the local equivalent of the wedding band, is the brass band. These can be old-school outfits like the Majestic or Michael White's Liberty Brass Band, which plays traditional repertoire almost exclusively, or bands that play in the more funk-based contemporary style of the Dirty Dozen band, or the Rebirth. Even newer-school outfits like the Hot 8 or the Soul Rebels play a kind of 'brass hop' style of hip-hop, rap music adapted to brass band instruments. There are also more esoteric groups like the Panorama Jazz Band that play hybrids of traditional brass band, early New Orleans jazz, and various Latin and Afro-Cuban styles. The one thing they all have in common is portability, marching capability, and (usually) percussion sections made up of two or more seperate players (one player on bass drum and one on snare). In addition to these relatively fixed-personell outfits there are dozens of 'pick up' type brass bands where who shows up at the gig is related to who's available. My buddy Kevin O'Day, for instance, has a band called the Oakside Brass Band that consists entirely of him on snare and his brother-in-law Frank Lodato on bass drum. When he gets a gig he just starts calling people and you never know who's going to be on the gig. Could be some guy you've never heard of on trumpet, could be the great Kirk Joseph on Sousaphone.
Yeah, You Right: Leon "Kid Chocolate" Brown
This week's guest is trumpeter extraordinaire Leon "Kid Chocolate" Brown, whose classic tone and stunning facility on the horn has delighted audiences at tons of major festivals, on Frenchmen Street, and at clubs like Preservation Hall and Irvin Mayfield's Jazz Playhouse. He's worked in many of the greatest bands in New Orleans, including the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, Los Hombres Calientes, the Preservation Hall-Stars, and his own Chocolate City.
Q: Crystal or Louisiana Hot Sauce?
A: Crystal.
Q: Zapp’s or Tater Tots?
A: Zapp's Jalapeno and Crawtators.
The story of a New Orleans sign-painter: Artist Lester Carey 
Satchmo Summerfest Recap 
Jason HallThe ninth annual Satchmo Summerfest ended with a massive rain shower and then cool breezes off the Mississippi River. The trumpet blowout that is the traditional closer of the festival featured Yoshio Toyama (often billed as the Satchmo of Japan), Shamarr Allen, James Andrews (pictured) and one of the youngsters from the Baby Boyz Brass Band joined Kermit Ruffins and his band, the BBQ Swingers in honoring the greatest musician to ever call New Orleans home, Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong.
QUINTRON: RISK YOUR LIFE TO BECOME A CALLIOPE PLAYER 
You ever play a calliope?
No, but I would really really love to. There’s a calliope on the Mississippi River that I hear every single day—the Natchez I believe is the steamship’s name and there’s an old woman that plays it. I don’t know what her name is but she is very wonderful. There is a peculiar thing about calliopes in that the power for the pipes that generate the sound for the calliope music is actually generated from the steam from the steam engine. The one in New Orleans is actually a real steam calliope. A lot of calliopes are fake. I would love to play it. It’s my dream actually. There’s supposedly—on a real old steam calliope—a release valve that you have to be careful to release enough steam so that the pressure in your organ tank doesn’t build up to such a point that there can be an explosion. The calliope is a dangerous instrument to play. You risk your life to become a calliope player—it’s true.
New Orleans great Toussaint feted in hometown
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