Upcoming: Kermit Ruffins & BBQ Swingers @ Highline Ballroom

CEG & Nolafunk presents Kermit Ruffins & the BBQ Swingers Performing Two Sets Including A Special Louis Armstrong Birthday Tribute Set Thursday, August 8

Louis Armstrong: 10 Recordings of Consequence (Oxford American)

By Ted Olson

1. “Just Gone,” recorded by King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, in Richmond, Indiana, on April 5, 1923 (Gennett Records). This is the first recording on which Armstrong appeared. Having worked in Joe “King” Oliver’s shadow since 1919, when he replaced the older musician in Kid Ory’s New Orleans-based band, Armstrong joined Oliver’s Chicago band in 1922, playing second cornet behind Oliver for much of 1923 and appearing with Oliver on recordings for four different record labels.

 2. “Go ‘Long, Mule,” recorded by Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra, in New York City, on October 7, 1924 (Columbia Records). On this performance, from his first recording session with Henderson’s popular jazz band, Armstrong played lead cornet (his solo can be heard at 1:32). During his one-year stint with Henderson, which lasted through the closing months of 1925, Armstrong was already attracting widespread attention for his verve and flair as an instrumentalist.

3. “St. Louis Blues,” recorded by Bessie Smith, in New York City, on January 14, 1925 (Columbia Records). This is the most famous individual recording resulting from Armstrong’s string of appearances as a leading session musician in the 1920s. Between October 1924 and July 1930, he contributed cornet (or, after 1928, trumpet) accompaniment on recordings of such acts as Ma Rainey, Victoria Spivey, and Jimmie Rodgers.

4. “Heebie Jeebies,” recorded by Louis Armstrong and the Hot Five, in Chicago, on February 26, 1926 (Okeh Records). Beginning in early 1926, Armstrong played as a bandleader fronting a succession of powerful ensembles, the first of which, the Hot Five, was comprised of Kid Ory (Trombone), Johnny Dodds (Clarinet, Alto Saxophone), Johnny St. Cyr (Banjo), and Armstrong’s then-wife Lil Hardin Armstrong (Piano, Vocals). One of his earliest recorded vocal performances, “Heebie Jeebies” marks the emergence of Armstrong’s characteristic style of scat singing: utilizing vocables to simulate an instrumental solo.

5. “Potato Head Blues,” recorded by Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven, in Chicago, on May 10, 1927 (Okeh Records). In May 1927, Armstrong’s expanded ensemble (with added tuba and drums to the Hot Five line-up) made several exuberant, now-classic recordings, including “Potato Head Blues.” In the 1979 film Manhattan, Woody Allen’s character, Isaac Davis, rhapsodizes that listening to this particular recording is one of the reasons why life is worth living.

6. “Mahogany Stomp,” recorded by Louis Armstrong and His Savoy Ballroom Five, in New York City, on March 5, 1929 (Okeh Records). This recording, along with “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” were Armstrong’s first records to feature a “big band.” Contrary to the group’s name, ten musicians backed Armstrong, including such legendary musicians as guitarist Lonnie Johnson and banjoist Eddie Condon. Although the Great Depression would slow the activities of many musicians, Armstrong was by this time an established recording artist whose music career would not be derailed by the economic collapse.

7. “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny,” recorded by Louis Armstrong and The Mills Brothers, in New York City, on April 7, 1937 (Decca Records). On this cover of James A. Bland’s nineteenth-century minstrel song, Armstrong croons the lead vocal against a backdrop of the Mills’ smooth harmonies. From the first of Armstrong’s four recording sessions with this best-selling vocal group, “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny” demonstrates Armstrong’s emergent mastery of performing popular material tailored for a more mainstream audience.

8. “You Won’t Be Satisfied (Until You Break My Heart),” recorded by Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald with Bob Haggart’s Orchestra, in New York City, on January 18, 1946 (Decca Records). While Armstrong would collaborate with many other stars over the years, his most memorable duet recordings were with Ella Fitzgerald. “You Won’t Be Satisfied (Until You Break My Heart)” was recorded at his first session with vocalist Fitzgerald, but their best collaborations would come a decade later, with the Verve label Armstrong-Fitzgerald duet albums of 1956 and 1957.

9. "Goldwyn Stomp," recorded by Louis Armstrong, in Los Angeles, on August 6, 1947 (used in the RKO Radio Pictures movie A Song Is Born). Armstrong appears as himself in this 1948 Technicolor movie directed by Howard Hawks and starring Danny Kaye. In one sequence, Kaye enters a club where Armstrong showcases his mesmerizing, infectious stage presence while jamming on trumpet with vibraphonist Lionel Hampton. His consummate showmanship would be displayed in dozens of other film and television productions.

10. “What a Wonderful World,” recorded by Louis Armstrong’s Orchestra and Chorus, in New York City, on August 16, 1967 (ABC-Paramount Records). While “Hello, Dolly!” may have been a far bigger U.S. hit in its day (1964, when it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart during the initial craze of the British Invasion), “What a Wonderful World” (1967) is Armstrong’s great, final gift to the world, and transcends the middle-of-the-road schmaltz of much of his later work through the sheer power of the song’s lyrical message and the controlled intensity of Armstrong’s vocal performance. While immediately appreciated elsewhere (it reached number one in the U.K. within a few weeks of its release there), it wasn’t until its inclusion on the soundtrack of the 1987 film Good Morning, Vietnam that it was embraced by Americans. By February 1988, “What a Wonderful World” reached #32 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and in 1999 Armstrong’s last single was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame.

NY Times: New Orleans Saint’s Brooklyn Revival

By BEN RATLIFF

A NEW record by Mac Rebennack, a k a Dr. John, the blues-and-roots potentate, is no big thing per se; it happens every few years. Neither is Dr. John returning to his late-’60s coordinates of super-informed funk, representing the rhythmic trip of West Africa to the Antilles to the American Gulf Coast; he did that recently on “Tribal,” released a year and a half ago. 

But “Tribal” probably didn’t go far beyond Dr. John’s own specialized listenership. What’s newsworthy about “Locked Down,” his new album, to be released by Nonesuch on April 3, is that he’s being nuzzled by someone young and much listened-to: Dan Auerbach, singer and guitarist of the Black Keys, the post-garage band that recently sold out a Madison Square Garden show in 15 minutes. Mr. Auerbach collaborated with Dr. John in a set at the Bonnaroo festival last June that I liked very much, with two drummers, backup singers and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. In it Dr. John sang old songs with twisted histories, and the show vibrated with bass, organ, low brass and quiet funk. 

Soon after that they recorded “Locked Down” — Mr. Auerbach produces and plays guitar — which is a bit more preening and academic. It’s all original songs, clearly grown out of studio jams. There’s a single drummer here, one of the two from the Bonnaroo show: Max Weissenfeldt, of the German rare-groove band Poets of Rhythm. The keyboardist and bassist, Leon Michels and Nick Movshon, are from the El Michels Affair, one of the bands associated with Dap-Tone records from Brooklyn and the world of retro-funk that brought you the sound of Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black” record. (They’ve also both played in the touring version of the Black Keys.) The guitarist Brian Olive, once of the Soledad Brothers, whose own solo album “Two of Everything” was produced last year by Mr. Auerbach, is part of the same fraternity of backward-looking obsessives. 

This record will find some fans among those who loved “Back to Black,” and it should. But have you ever wondered how hip is too hip? “Locked Down,” with its down-cold James Black drum rhythms, distorted Fender Rhodes keyboards and free-range, organically farmed reverb, is a useful test case. (By the way, go back and listen to Dr. John’s complicated, spaced-out record “The Sun, Moon & Herbs,” from 1971, when all recordings were analog: are we trying to out-hip that on its own terms?) If Dr. John weren’t grounding it with his casual essence, it might collapse under the weight of its own studied scuff. 

But some of it is beautiful, and I look forward to hearing it live. One can do that right around the release date of the record, when Dr. John comes to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for “Insides Out,” a residency spread across three weekends. March 29 to 31 he’ll perform in “A Louis Armstrong Tribute,” which is just what it sounds like but different, including performances from Arturo Sandoval, Rickie Lee Jones and the Blind Boys of Alabama. April 5 to 7 he’ll be performing “Locked Down” with Mr. Auerbach and band; and April 12 to 14 he presents “Funky but It’s Nu Awlins,” with guests from his hometown, including Donald Harrison, Davell Crawford, Ivan Neville, Irma Thomas and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band.

Upcoming: Rebirth @ South Street Seaport & Kermit @ Hiro Ballroom

Visitors’ Center Planned for Louis Armstrong House and Museum

By BEN RATLIFF

Blueprints and design have just been completed for a visitors’ center dedicated to the life and artifacts of Louis Armstrong, according to Michael Cogswell, director of the Armstrong House and Museum, in Corona, Queens. The center will take a year and a half to build, and will sit across the street from the three-story brick house on 107th Street, which has been open to the public since 2003.


It will contain Armstrong’s copious collection of personal artifacts, which for reasons of space and preservation has mostly been housed at the Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library at Queens College, several miles away. The collection includes 20 linear feet of letters and papers (Armstrong was an enthusiastic correspondent, even with fans he’d never met), trumpets, photographs and scrapbooks, more than 700 reel-to-reel tapes whose boxes he decorated with colorful collages and a chunk of the banister from the Colored Waifs’ Home for Boys in New Orleans, where he lived in 1913 and 1914. Since last Wednesday, much of the astonishing material has been viewable at the Museum’s Web site, louisarmstronghouse.org.

Happening: The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong @ Dizzy's Club

The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong

w/Victor Goines, Wycliffe Gordon, Aaron Diehl, James Andrews, Herman Burney & Marion Felder

Tue-Sun, Sep 7-12

7:30pm & 9:30pm

plus 11:30pm on Fri & Sat

In the second round of The Coca-Cola Generations in Jazz Festival, saxophonist Victor Goines and trombonist Wycliffe Gordon - both in their 40s - join musical forces with drummer Marion Felder and pianist Aaron Diehl - both in their 20s, to celebrate the musical inventiveness and dexterity of the great "Satchmo." They are joined by James Andrews on trumpet and Herman Burney on bass.

Louis Armstrong, "When The Saints Go Marching In" (1938)

BONUS:

What A Wonderful Surprise (Overdub Bootleg)

Louis Armstrong vs. Radiohead – What A Wonderful Surprise (Overdub Bootleg)

NolaFunky A/V Lagniappe

Home of the Groove: "Mardi Gras Indian Variation

Well, it's way past time for more Carnival tunage up in here. TheHOTG webcastis streaming music of the season 24/7 through Mardi Gras Day, too. So, hit that anytime for more fun. But, right here, right now, I'm posting a track each from the Wild Magnolias and the Wild Tchoupitoulas for our holiday festivities; and, in between, we'll have intense, live Mardi Gras Indian-influenced funkitude from Professor Longhair, plus a pretty obscure seasonal groove offering that owes an obvious debt to Fess. So, prepare to loose that Who Dat! booty. It's Mardi Gras comin', y'all.

American Routes ~ Second Lines and Black Pots: American Routes Live in Louisiana

February 10th, 2010 ~ Come stir the pot with American Routes as we bring you a sampling of great live music from our home state: Louisiana. First we'll stop by the soon to be legendary BlackPot Festival in Lafayette for some new flavors of Cajun and Creole tunes, as well as some old favorites by special guests. Then we'll walk through the streets of New Orleans with the Prince of Wales Social Aid and Pleasure Club during their annual second line parade.

Groovescapes: "The OG Vol. 6: The Rebirth Brass Band"

S

uffice it to say that the city of New Orleans is caught up in an unprecedented state of merriment. Tuesday, an estimated 800,000 people showed up at the Saints’ Super Bowl parade – a glorious occasion, if I might say so myself. Now, what can only be predicted to be the largest Mardi Gras celebration in history is just about to kick off. In keeping with the spirit of the season – and the brass band theme – I’ve got an OG lined up for today that’s sure set the weekend off right. My subject for this week’s column is Crescent City favorite, the Rebrith Brass Band.

MP3: Rebirth Brass Band – When the Saints Go Marching In / Who Dat

MP3: Rebirth Brass Band – My Song

Formative Power of New Orleans' Marching Bands

“If you’re in here you’ve got to be willing to work,” he said. “One slip of the tongue, that’s one less person. One slip of the hand, that’s one less person. We need everybody.”

In the cramped band room of the West Bank charter school, that “everybody” is more than 100 students strong. It includes novices who only recently picked up an instrument and students with so much musical experience their horns feel like extensions of their hands.

Such large, ambitious marching bands have become a relative anomaly in a city famous for its second-lines, brass bands and musical luminaries, however. More than four years after Hurricane Katrina, band leaders say they are fighting to ensure the tradition thrives in a dramatically altered public school landscape.

The decline of that tradition, they fear, would mark the loss of an activity — a passion — that, over the decades, has kept scores of the city’s teenagers connected to school. The best band directors realize that strong marching bands can bolster strong academic programs in the long run, particularly if the music and academic classes are well integrated. And in some cases, “if you keep an instrument in a kid’s hand, it will keep a kid from picking up a gun,” said Elijah Brimmer, a longtime band director in the city.

Stream Songs from "Preservation Hall – Benefit Album"

All Tracks featuring the PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND:

Andrew Bird – “Shake It and Break It”
Paolo Nutini – “Between the Devil and Deep Blue Sea”
Tom Waits – “Tootie Ma Is A Big Fine Thing”
Yim Yames – “Louisiana Fairytale”
Del McCoury – “After You’ve Gone”
Ani DiFranco – “Freight Train”
Pete Seeger & Tao Rodriguez-Seeger – “Blue Skies (Comin My Way)”
Jason Isbell – “Nobody Knows You”
Brandi Carlile – “Old Rugged Cross”
Richie Havens – “Trouble in Mind”
Merle Haggard – “Basin Street Blues”
Blind Boys of Alabama – “There is a Light”
Dr. John – “Winin’ Boy”
Louis Armstrong – “Rockin’ Chair”
Amy LaVere – “Baby Won’t You Please Come Home”
Steve Earle – “Tain’t Nobody’s Business”
Cory Chisel – “Some Cold Rainy Day”
Buddy Miller – “I Ain’t Got Nobody”
Angelique Kidjo with Terence Blanchard – “La Vie En Rose”

Bonus Tracks (Deluxe CD):

Anita Briem – “C’est Si Bon”
Paolo Nutini – “Pencil Full of Lead”
Yim Yames – “St. James Infirmary”
Tom Waits – “Corine Dies On The Battlefield”
Pete Seeger & Tao Rodriguez-Seeger – “Sailin’ Up Sailin’ Down”
Pete Seeger & Tao Rodriguez-Seeger – “We Shall Overcome”

NolaFunk Lagniappe

Louis Armstrong in 2 Minutes, 53 Second

Louis Armstrong, “Dinah,” filmed on a sound stage in Denmark, 1933: a very early item in his filmography. This is a short and efficient answer for why he was and is important. You sense he’s building his brand — the stuff with the handkerchief, getting up in the viewer’s grill, popping his eyes at .55 — but it’s still pretty extreme, and exciting. Look at how he felt music, and moved to it. (Especially .10-.20, that davening kind of thing: James Brown did that too.) Listen to the way he chopped up rhythm, sailing his phrases over the beat. You want to say he’s imitating a trumpet when he sings, but then you want to say vice versa, so neither can be true. He’s continuous, playing or singing something nearly all the way through, making his body part of the performance.

CNN Heroes: New Orleans Kids Plant 'Roots Of Music'

The Roots of Music offers students free instruments, music instruction and tutoring through funding from sponsors and donations. The program runs every weekday from 4 to 7 p.m., year-round, and even feeds students a hot meal before sending them home safely with bus transportation.

Dining & Wine United Tastes: Saving New Orleans Culture, One Sandwich at a Time

At the New Orleans Po-Boy Preservation Festival on Nov. 22, as brass bands play and celebrators hoist drinks, serious-minded panelists will tell tales of long-lost po’ boy shops. They will speak of the import of this city’s signature sandwich, piled with roast beef and gravy or corn-flour-breaded and fried shrimp, slathered with mayonnaise, paved with sliced pickles and sliced tomatoes, strewn with shredded lettuce, wrapped in butcher paper.

Mardi Gras Indian Orchestra

Footage of the Mardi Gras Indian Orchestra practicing on Tuesday in preparation for their two-night stay at the Hi Ho Lounge. The Orchestra, who first performed during Mardi Gras earlier this year, features a long list of many of New Orleans’ best musicians.

Podcast: Four Minutes with the Panorama Brass Band

Colin Jones talks with Ben Schenck of the Panorama Jazz Band after the release of this year’s Keep on Swingin’.

James Booker

Footage of the great James Booker playing “Classified”. The person who posted it to YouTube says it’s live at Montreaux, but one of the respondents thinks it’s from French TV from 1976.

Sonny Landreth On Mountain Stage

Louisiana native and slide-guitar master Sonny Landreth came to prominence playing in the band of Zydeco king Clifton Chenier. As an in-demand session and touring player, Landreth has contributed to the work of John Hiatt, Kenny Loggins and John Mayall, among others. His 2000 album Levee Town has recently been reissued with bonus tracks.

Mirliton Festival Redux

The Bywater Mirliton Festival has been one of my favorites of the little fests that dot this town during the nine-month festival season. It’s hard to believe it’s been going on for twenty years. Yet, they are still tweaking the set up and moving the stage to the far end of the playground really opened up more space to walk around and check out the food and vendors.

Dave Bartholomew inducted into Hall of Fame

Music composer Dave Bartholomew - who collaborated with Fats Domino to produce such hits as "Blueberry Hill," "I'm Walkin'" and "Blue Monday" - has been inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.

Bartholomew, 88, was honored by friends and colleagues at a surprise private party at the Roosevelt Hotel in downtown New Orleans on Sunday. His career began in the 1940s and has included collaborations with Frankie Ford, Smiley Lewis, Earl King and Roy Brown.

Among those in attendance at Sunday's ceremony were jazz pianists Allen Toussaint, Dr. John and Ellis Marsalis. Marsalis performed Bartholomew's 1947 hit "Stardust" with Leroy Jones, and Dr. John performed his rendition of "Dirty People." Toussaint performed a song he wrote for the occasion called "Here's to You, Dave."

NY Post: 8 reasons to go to New Orleans now

NolaFunk Lagniappe

Running the Meters

By funky16corners

The Meters, as stated above (and several times in this very space over the course of the history of Funky16Corners) were one of the greatest of classic era funk bands, laying down a few of what are undisputably (to any sane listener) the greatest grooves ever committed to vinyl.

New Orleans Survival Spirit

In this excerpt from the latest NYC Summer Scoops Live performance series, Terence Blanchard and Tammy Lynn talk about the unique spirit of community that persists in New Orleans.

No doubt about it: New Orleans to the bottom of their soul

The Iguanas hardly sound like the quintessential New Orleans band. There is a horn — Joe Cabral's saxophone — but the effect is more Mexican ranchera than Bourbon Street brass. They don't play funk, neither Dr. John-style piano funk, nor the Meters-type electric groove. The patois in New Orleans is spiced largely with French accents; when the Iguanas sing in a language other than English, it is Spanish. Only if you believe the line that New Orleans is the northern-most Caribbean city, does the Iguanas sound qualify as a New Orleans sound.

But the recent album “If You Should Ever Fall On Hard Times,” released in September, makes it plain how much New Orleans is a part of the band.

when kermit met louis

Kermit Ruffins was surprised to hear four Louis Armstrong tunes in a row on New York radio this past Monday morning, while in town to play at Lincoln Center. It didn't dawn on either of us that July 6th was the anniversary of Armstrong's death, in 1971, at 69. We realized it only later, standing in the bedroom of he house in Corona, Queens that Armstrong and his wife Lucille called home from 1943 on -- now lovingly preserved as the Armstrong House Museum.

"Didn't he....?" Ruffins asked.

"Yes, in this very room," said Deslyn Dyer, the museum's assistant director. "On this very day."

Just then, photographer James Delaria's Canon stopped working. A minute later, it abruptly clicked back into service.

I knew bringing Ruffins --a New Orleans trumpeter who has channeled much of Armstrong's approach to jazz as extroverted entertainment -- to this place would be a spiritual experience. But I didn't plan it that carefully.

I'd interviewed Ruffins a while back, and when I noticed he was going to be in New York, I mentioned the museum.

New Orleans bars feature great music seven days a week




A life in music: Wynton Marsalis

'If you lose the music you have lost everything. No amount of money would make up for losing something so important'

On inauguration day in Washington earlier this year, the Wynton Marsalis Quintet played a private party at the White House in honour of President Obama. The two men are the same age, but long before Obama came to prominence, Marsalis had been a national figure and so while he says "as a liberal and a Democrat I, of course, feel that things are better in America", he is experienced enough to know that change, particularly in the areas he cares about most, might not come as quickly as he would like.

New Wave Brass Band adorns streets of İstanbul with New Orleans jazz

As one of the most important regions for the development of jazz, due to its unique history and culture as well as its distinctive character, rooted in the colonial period (originally as part of a French colony), New Orleans today offers a taste of its culture through the music of its homegrown New Wave Brass Band, which has been strolling the streets of the city since last weekend as part of this year's İstanbul Jazz Festival.

Five Questions with Aaron of the Honey Island Swamp Band

5. The band recently returned from a trip to the East Coast- how were you received by audiences up north?

The crowds on this first East Coast run were great. Sullivan Hall in New York, the 8 x10 in Baltimore, and the Federal Hill Jazz and Blues Festival, also in Baltimore, were all highlights. In a lot of these bigger markets, you’re almost expected to fall on your face the first time through. But everyone at those gigs, including us, was pleasantly surprised at the turnout. They all asked to have us back, and we’ll be up there again the last two weeks of August.

New Orleans Voices Podcast: Lumar LeBlanc Interview

Lumar LeBlanc is the snare drummer and founder of the Soul Rebels Brass Band. The Soul Rebels combine brass band music, reggae, r&b, and funk, into a style that's all their own.

Mo Beauty for Clap Your Hands Frontman Alec Onunsworth

The album was recorded in New Orleans and boasts of some Big Easy regulars. Ounsworth is backed by George Porter, Jr. on bass (The Meters), Robert Walter on keys (The Greyboy Allstars), Stanton Moore (Galactic) on drums and Matt Sutton on baritone and pedal-steel guitars. A few notables in the community including Mark Mullins, Craig Klein, Greg Hicks, Washboard Chaz, Shannon Powell, John Boutte, Al "Carnival Time" Johnson and Meschiya Lake also dropped in on the fun.

"...New Orleans informed the spirit of the record, as it should. It's not a 'New Orleans record,' though, because, besides "Holy, Holy, Holy Moses," most of the songs weren't written specifically for New Orleans," says Ounsworth. "...Any record can be influenced by its location aesthetically, and some are more than others. So it was with this record... it is New Orleans, after all."

Nathan Abshire's cajun blues

I started listening to cajun and zydeco music while I was in college at Case Western Reserve University. Nathan Abshire's "Pine Grove Blues" was a classic recording that I encountered back then. Abshire was an important figure in the revival of the accordion in post-World II cajun music. Here is a video of him at Fred's Lounge in Mamou, Louisiana. I don't understand French but one does not need to know the words to appreciate the soulfulness of his music.

Hart McNee, New Orleans flutist, saxophonist, dies at 66

Hart McNee, raspy-voiced bass flutist and baritone saxophonist who played with innumerable musical legends and made more than 40 appearances at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, died Tuesday morning of liver cancer. He was 66.

Jonathan Freilich, who played with Mr. McNee in The Naked Orchestra and Los Vecinos, found him deft at improvisation, able to assert his personality within the music. "Hart was a master of that, " Freilich said. "He could be very playful, contemplative or tough."

In New Orleans, Mr. McNee recorded with his own band and played with the Storyville Stompers brass band, Mas Mamones, Moyuba, Coco Robicheaux and John Boutte.

NPR: Mapping your life by sound

Independent producers Jacob Brancasi and Heather Booth are mapping the city by sound for Open Sound New Orleans, an interactive audio project. Brancasi and Booth have asked New Orleanians to record what they hear in their neighborhoods, and then upload the audio to OpenSoundNewOrleans.com.

The contributed recordings, called "soundmarks," are linked to a map of the city, so others can explore the sounds of people, music and everyday life found around New Orleans.

On This Date (July 7, 1949) Bunk Johnson / New Olreans Jazz Musician

c/o themusicsover

Willie “Bunk” Johnson
December 27, 1889 – July 7, 1949

Bunk Johnson was a popular New Orleans Jazz trumpeter in the early part of the 20th century who gained an even bigger audience when his career was revived in the ’40s. Johnson claimed he was born in 1879, but most sources indicate that he was actually born in 1889. What IS know is that Johnson played his trumpet in and around around New Orleans during the early 1900s, only to have his career cut short in 1931 when he lost his trumpet and front teeth in a fight at a dance. In the late ’30s, two writers learned of Johnson during their interviews with Louis Armstrong and others. Armstrong has cited him as an inspiration. Intrigued by their praise, the men tracked down Johnson and and later raised money for new dentures so he could play again. He went into the studio in 1942 to make his first records. With his career revived, Johnson toured more extensively than in years past. Johnson died in 1949 following a stroke.

On This Date (July 6, 1971) Louis Armstrong

c/o themusicsover

Louis Armstrong
August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971

Nicknamed “Satchmo,” Louis Armstrong was arguably the greatest performer jazz has ever known. Born into poverty in New Orleans, Armstrong’s young life was as tough as one could imagine – a father who abandoned the family and a mother who was forced to turn to prostitution. To get away, Armstrong hung out at the local dance halls of the city’s red light district, taking in the music of such greats as Joe “King” Oliver and Bunk Johnson who claimed he taught the young boy how to play the cornet. He would later take up the more familiar trumpet.

When he became proficient on the cornet, Armstrong got gigs playing on riverboats and in parade brass bands. It was only a matter of time before Armstrong was playing alongside the likes of Kid Ory, Fletcher Henderson, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Ella Fitzgerald and future wife, Lil Hardin. Throughout his career, Armstrong made countless recordings, appeared in film and on television, and made the cover of Time magazine in February of 1949. But it wasn’t until the world was caught up in Beatlemania, that he released his unlikely 1964 hit, “Hello Dolly.” The song had the distinct honor of not only making him the oldest artist (63) to reach the #1 slot on the pop charts, but also of knocking the Beatles out of the top slot for the first time in 14 weeks. Louis Armstrong died shortly after a heart attack at the age of 69.

NolaFunk Lagniappe

Meet The Radiators, Feel Their Energy…

This is an original New Orleans band. Like all New Orleans residents the band members went through Hurricane Katrina and the levy disaster that happened afterward, and the total damage and suffering it caused to their town. Although it has affected them all personally it has not slowed them down much. The Radiators have been producing original songs for over 30 years. Wow. The most amazing part of this phenom is that all of the original members are still playing together making this one of just a few long tenured bands. This New Orleans quintet has been together touring and writing songs long enough to have a cult following that fills venues everytime. They are an integral part of New Orleans and the re-vitalization of the town. They have had gigged at Tips and other New Orleans clubs for well over 20 years.

Homemade World: Quintron & Miss Pussycat

You don't expect to hear Mr. Quintron discuss a water pump. The world of Quintron and his wife/percussionist/puppeteer Miss Pussycat is rarely so mundane, but while in New York City for a show featuring his new album Too Thirsty 4 Love and an art show of Pussycat's puppets, the van broke down and had to be dealt with.

A more common context for Quintron and Miss Pussycat is theatrical, such as their performance in the Bingo! Parlour during this year's Voodoo Music Experience. Dressed in a blue, sparkled jumpsuit, Quintron settled in his console--a small bank of keyboards fronted with a car grill complete with headlights and a "Quintron" license plate, along with a mess of less obvious homemade instruments and Drum Buddy, his light-activated synthesizer with its signature inverted coffee can on top. When he sat down, a droning organ swell rose, part roller rink, part Phantom of the Opera. He nursed the drone along, then brought it under control and started to frame it into a song. When the rhythm kicked in, Miss Pussycat stood beside him shaking maracas dressed in red and white cozies that matched the puff on her head. The drone becomes "Waterfall," a ride-the-train dance party from the new album, and when it was over, it returned to the drone that spawned it and filled the space between songs.

Louis Armstrong - Basin Street Blues 1959
by Yedi

Drummer Herlin Riley comes home for the holidays

A big plus for the holiday season in New Orleans is that many of our musicians come in off the road and their names pop up on local club schedules. December listings blossom with those who we boast as local artists but who in reality are internationally renowned musicians.

Dr. John's 429 Records Debut "CITY THAT CARE FORGOT" Nominated for "Best Contemporary Blues" Grammy

Dr. John (aka Mac Rebennack, Jr.), has secured a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Contemporary Blues Album" for his 2008 recording "CITY THAT CARE FORGOT." He recently signed to the Savoy Label Group's 429 Records which released the heartfelt homage to his hometown of New Orleans. Described by USA Today as "a rambunctious and furious post-Katrina polemic," "CITY THAT CARE FORGOT" is both an eloquent and an angry musical venting of emotions surrounding the devastation and lack of response to the Katrina disaster. This is Dr. John's 11th Grammy Award nomination overall having won the award in 1989, 1992, 1996 and 2000. The 51st Grammy Awards will be held on February 8th.

Louisiana Grammy Nominees Announced (from Weekly Beat)

This year Louisiana didn't have to rely on the jazz, blues and Cajun/zydeco categories to get a little love. Lil Wayne and Tha Carter III did the heavy lifting, garnering nominations for Album of the Year, Best Rap Solo Performance ( "A Milli" ), Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group (he competes against himself here as he's on Jay-Z's "Swagga Like Us" and Jay-Z's on his "Mr. Carter" ), Best Rap/Sung Collaboration ( "Got Money" ), Best Rap Song ("Lollipop" and "Swagga Like Us" ) and Best Rap Album.

But Weezy's not the whole story. Terence Blanchard is nominated for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo for "Be-Bop" from Live at the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival, and the Blind Boys of Alabama are up for Best Traditional Gospel Album for Down in New Orleans, which they recorded here at Preservation Hall with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, the Hot 8 Brass Band, Allen Toussaint and more. Louisiana and friends own the Best Contemporary Blues Album category, with three of the five nominees from the area: Marcia Ball (Peace, Love & BBQ), Dr. John and the Lower 911 (City That Care Forgot) and Irma Thomas (Simply Grand).

The Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album will be contested for the second time this year by BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet (Live at the 2008 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival), Michael Doucet (From Now On), the Pine Leaf Boys (Homage Au Passé), Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys (Live at the 2008 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival) and Cedric Watson (Cedric Watson). Once again, Harry Shearer is nominated for Best Comedy Album, this time for Songs of the Bushmen.

Tulane offers Jazz Studies and New Orleans Music

Tulane University is expanding its graduate degree program in Musicology with a concentration in Jazz Studies and New Orleans Music.

The Department of Music is actively seeking applicants for the expanded program, which launches in Fall 2009 and includes funding for tuition waivers and stipends for up to five students. Applications are due February 1, 2009.

Interview: Jimmy of The Subdudes

New Orleans’ rockers and masters of harmony The Subdudes recently did something they’ve never done since getting together way back in 1987 - put out a live concert video. If almost to make up for lost time, the sweet sounding quintet have put out an inspired double DVD documentary and concert film displaying two completely different sides of the band’s music.

Filmed over the course of three days in Annapolis Maryland, The Subdudes Live at Ram’s Head and Unplugged at Pleasant Plains two-DVD set contains 15 song selections from two nights of concerts at The Ram’s Head on the first disc. The second disc features 70 minutes of interviews, an unplugged set and original studio footage shot while creating and recording the Street Symphony album with legendary producer George Massenberg in Nashville Tennessee. We recently spoke with ‘dudes’ bassist Jimmy Messa about the band’s first DVD…

Trumpeter Christian Scott fights for the future of jazz

"If I hear it a certain way, that's the way it's going to be," Christian Scott says.When asked about the state of jazz, Christian Scott's mood sours. "The [stuff] is garbage," said the New Orleans-born trumpeter, speaking by phone from San Francisco, his voice sharp, direct. "I mean, you want the truth?"

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A Marsalis who is drumming up the "life aspects" of music

Drummer Jason Marsalis credits a lunchtime conversation at Lil Dizzy's Café with fellow percussionists Herlin Riley and Shannon Powell for his greater appreciation of the "life aspects" of music. The three New Orleans drummers were at the Tremé restaurant to prepare for their tribute to the legendary Max Roach for an upcoming set at the 2008 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. As it turned out, the performance became a highlight of the festival.

Threadhead Records: New Susan Cowsill Project Kicks Off in January

Threadhead Records, a recently launched fan-supported label organized by devotees of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (and NOLA music, in general), is now accepting contributions to fund the new CD from Susan Cowsill.

Singer-songwriter Cowsill, most recently of the Continental Drifters, and most famously the youngest member of late ’60s family band the Cowsills (inspiration for television’s “Partridge Family”), is headed to the studio in January to record her second solo album.

Her first solo release, Just Believe It, recorded shortly after Hurricane Katrina, is being remixed and remastered for a January release on Threadhead Records. That 2005 disc, featuring guest appearances by Lucinda Williams, Vicki Peterson, and Adam Duritz of Counting Crows, generated loads of critical acclaim.

The Meters - Hand Clapping Song (♫)

In their 25-year history, The Meters have grooved their way around the globe. They have toured with such talents as The Rolling Stones, and have been the rhythm for such diverse artists as Dr. John, Paul McCartney, Robert Palmer and Patti Labelle.

Considered by many to be the founding fathers of funk, The Meters created a unique sound that lasted through the sixties and seventies and was reborn in the late eighties. Their trademark sound blends funk, blues, and dance grooves with a New Orleans vibe.

New Orleans Music World Lacks Business Opportunities

New Orleans is internationally known for its rich musical culture as well as the birthplace of jazz music. Although the city still maintains its image for being a musical mecca, it has been facing a paradox between the music industry and its music. The music industry has been having a hard time matching with the overabundance of musical talent in New Orleans.