Showing posts with label maple leaf. Show all posts
Showing posts with label maple leaf. Show all posts
Monday, November 26, 2012
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Rebirth Brass Band Signs With Basin Street Records
c/o Offbeat
Basin Street Records announced today that the Rebirth Brass Band has signed with the label, and will be releasing their first Basin Street album early next year. It won’t be their first recordings with Basin Street—they played with former member and co-founder Kermit Ruffins on 2005’s Throwback. However, the upcoming album will be Rebirth’s first of new material under their own name since 2004’s Rebirth for Life.
Mark Samuels, President of Basin Street Records, states, “There is nothing in the world like going to see Rebirth on a Tuesday night at the Maple Leaf. We are excited to begin what we hope will be a long relationship that is beneficial to both Rebirth and our label.”
If this sounds like the match you’ve been waiting for while patiently waiting on the release of more Rebirth recordings, you’re not alone. As founder and tuba player Phil Frazier says, “This is what New Orleans is all about, the Rebirth Brass Band and Basin Street Records teaming up to release music that’ll make you move and put a smile on your face.
Monday, December 7, 2009
NolaFunk Lagniappe
Blind Blues Daddy's terrific new release
Whether you call Bryan Lee The Blind Giant of the Blues or Braille Blues Daddy, it does not matter. Lee, a New Orleans institution since 1982 had a long-time residency at the Old Absinthe House on Bourbon Street with his Jump Street Five. This writer saw Lee there in the eighties and was impressed by his Albert King influenced style and husky straight-forward singing to get the vinyl album they had for sale. When the Old Absinthe House stopped being a bar with entertainment, he moved on to other Crescent City venues as well as toured throughout the US and Europe. Since 1991 he has recorded for the Canadian Justin Time label which previously issued 11 albums (one being a compilation) by Lee has just issued “My Lady Don’t Love My Lady,” the third Lee recording that Duke Robillard has produced and it is a typically strong recording. Robillard put together the studio band of some of his long-time associates including bassist Marty Ballou, pianist Dave Maxwell, and saxophonists Gordon Beadle and Doug James with guest appearances by Buddy Guy and Kenny Wayne Sheppard.
2009 VOODOO Experience: REDUX!In Pursuit of Bo-Consciousness - Part 7Although the two would never exactly bond professionally, Joe Banashak hired Eddie Bo not only as a producer, arranger, and writer, but also as a recording artist. Starting in 1966, Bo worked primarily on projects for the Seven B label, including his own releases, and also did writing and production duties for Instant, Alon, Tune-Kel and Busy-B (busy he was). His impressive catalog for Seven B has been discussed and featured by Larry Grogan at hisFunky 16 Cornersweb-zine and blog, and, of course, by Martin Lawrie'sEddie Bo Discography; and I encourage you to look into those sources, if you haven't already. There was so much good Seven B material of Bo's to get into that I will have to come back to it at a (much) later date. I'll be focusing here on just a few of the other interesting records Eddie oversaw for Banashak at the time.
Dee-1 ft Shamarr Allen: Bring 'Em to the DomeHBO's 'Treme' starts production on regular-season episodes
The first scenes captured for HBO’s “Treme” were sanctified by the smoke of Kermit Ruffins’ mobile barbecue rig, so no wonder it got a green light.
Ruffins plays himself in the pilot episode of the series, which was shot in March and April in New Orleans.Set immediately post-Katrina, the drama intends to tell the city’s recovery story through fictional characters drawn from some of the real characters who were here then -- men and women who live and work in and around the peculiar vernacular culture known mostly to locals: second-line musicians, Mardi Gras Indians, cooks and chefs, music fiends, Kermit Ruffins.
The trumpeter showed up for his first day of work on “Treme” with his grill in tow – a gig is a gig, after all – and by mid-afternoon on the first day of shooting, the barbecue smoke drifting into the streets around the location set could’ve been the work of special-effects artists. In a way, it was.
Dr. John's weird New Orleans psych musicYears ago, I got turned on to the psychedelic New Orleans "voodoo" vibe of Dr. John (aka Mac Rebennack, Jr.). His 1968 debut Gris-Gris is a fantastically weird amalgam of R&B, dark psych rock, and NOLA culture. I'd never seen footage of the Night Tripper, as Dr. John is also known, until today. Quite a spectacle.
The Maple Leaf Bar: Dive In
They’re up there in ‘shrine’ status, places to be venerated, get plastered in, danced to within inches of your life in, become besotted with great music in, rub elbows with as wide a mix of America as you’ll find at a really good dive in. Which is what Zagat, for god’s sake, lists the Maple Leaf Bar as in its section about New Orleans - not the other stuff, but the ‘top dive’ part.
ChazFest 2009: Jeremy Lyons & Deltabilly Boys Saturday, October 31, 2009
In Pictures: Scenes from New Orleans
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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
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
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)
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 GrammyMC Trachiotomy and His Creepy Abode
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 MusicToday’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.
Friday, February 6, 2009
NolaFunk Lagniappe
Burning Wood's: Snooks Prostate cancer and a loss of blood during a recent hospital stay have slowed down the great New Orleans legend, Snooks Eaglin. I've read that he is making a peaceful recovery, but I can't be sure. With the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival approaching, I start to think about these great musicians with even more enthusiasm than usual.
Here's Snooks and a very dapper George Porter Jr. on bass, (not sure who the drummer is) from a late 80s performance at NYC's Lone Star Roadhouse. I love the video, but I think I like the commentary below the video even more.
see also: Thinking about Snooks
Dumpstaphunk: Massive Tour "Dumpstaphunk is the best funk band from New Orleans right now." -New York Times
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After putting the finishing touches on their first full-length record which will be released later this year, Dumpstaphunk will hit the road again for another month including shows at Martyr's Chicago, the band's debut performance in Philadelphia, and a return to The Orange Peel in Asheville, NC, a city where they recently delivered a standout performance in front of 7200 music lovers as part of Warren Haynes' 20th Annual Christmas Jam. Anchoring this run will be two special Post-Allman Brothers Band shows at the Highline Ballroom in New York City.
Dr. John's "Pine Top Boogie"Best of the Beat Awards included a surprise piano giveaway
Those who left Saturday's Best of the Beat Awards immediately following the award ceremony missed an entertaining and eclectic night of New Orleans music -- and a surprise piano giveaway.
Louisiana Cuisine: Jacques Imo's feeds Papa Grows Funk @ Maple Leaf Displaced Soul Rebels Help Jazz Up The Big Easy
Three years later, with homes still shuttered in New Orleans and having determined that Houston is economically better-suited for their families, Leblanc and Hubbard continue their ritual: the 350-mile desert drive every Thursday morning, Hubbard’s shave and neighborhood gossip session with the old hometown barber down in the Seventh Ward and a quick car nap before heating up Le Bon Temps till 3 a.m. Over a standard weekend, the Rebels will then play gigs at Café Brasil, the Dragon’s Den, a private event and maybe a street parade. When Sunday morning arrives, Leblanc offers gratitude at St. Maria Goretti Church, then journeys with Hubbard back to Houston, where they have four days of family time before the road calls again.
New Wynton Marsalis album “He and She” to be released in MarchIrvin Mayfield Leads New Orleans Jazz OrchestraNew music from Leo NocentelliNPR:Danza Quartet Welcomes 2009, Bayou Style
New Year's Eve in New Orleans was an affair to remember. The moon waxed over the Crescent City like a sliver over the Mississippi River, a cradle in the sky over the cradle of jazz. The lighted entrance of Louis Armstrong Park was shining on Rampart Street for the first time since Hurricane Katrina dimmed the neighborhood, and historic Congo Square was just a heartbeat away from us.
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