c/o Weekly Beat
LAST CALL FOR PBS
When PBS plays Tipitina's French Quarter Friday night, it will be its last show for the funk trio with bassist George Porter, Jr. (pictured). "I put in my time," he says. "I gave my 100 percent for four years." The band also includes drummer Russell Batiste and guitarist Brian Stoltz, and earlier this year, they released the live Moodoo earlier this year, along with a series of live downloads. "I wasn't seeing the progress I wanted," Porter says.
James Booker: New Orleans Piano Wizard; 25 Years GoneThe name James Booker means very little in most parts of the world. In New Orleans, and to a great number of musicians, mainly piano players, the name James Booker is holy. Not bad for someone who was once called "the best black, gay, junkie piano player who ever lived."
John Blancher celebrates 20 years of Rock 'n Bowl 
Rock 'n Bowl returned from Hurricane Katrina as strong as ever; the past 12 months have been the operation's highest-grossing fiscal year to date, Blancher said, despite a post-Gustav dip in business. Along with the likes of Tipitina's and the Maple Leaf Bar, it is an iconic destination for locals and tourists eager to experience the "real" New Orleans.
New Orleans piano legend Fats Domino materializes at his documentary's premiere partyAfter accepting the awards, Domino -- clad in a short-sleeve Hawaiian shirt, white slacks, tennis shoes and his omnipresent captain's cap -- reminded the audience that he's "not much of a talker" in his brief thank-you remarks. With that, he disappeared through the club's backstage entrance to relax in an outdoor lounge area with his preferred beverage, cold bottles of Heineken.
Fats Domino documentary to air on PBSChristian Scott - Live At Newport (2008)
The New Orleans tradition continues.
Over one hundred years after the Crescent City had given the world cornetist and jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden, kicking off an amazing string of brass legends going from Louis Armstrong to Wynton Marsalis to Terence Blanchard, another ground-breaking trumpet player from this storied city has emerged in just the last few years. His name is Christian Scott.
Like Marsalis, Scott was born into New Orleans music---his uncle is Donald Harrison---but unlike Wynton, Scott is not dwelling on tradition at the beginning of his career before putting his own imprint on jazz.
New Orleans swaps guns for music
The New Orleans Horns for Guns project is a variation on gun buy-back programs offering residents musical instruments, cameras and classes in exchange for gunDownload: Page w/ PBS @ Live Downloads 
Enjoy the Big Easy's musical heartN'Awlins is callin' you with Tab BenoitHave the hurricanes weakened the future of the New Orleans music scene, especially if homegrown musicians and future talent have relocated?
I don’t know if it can be anywhere near what it was. The people who really, really love New Orleans and can’t live without it are back, and even if they’re not physically living in the city where they used to live, they’re at least living in surrounding areas.
A lot went to Baton Rouge, somewhere in the vicinity, but they still come back and play New Orleans a lot. Between musicians, the bond is stronger than ever. Everyone went through the same thing together, which got us all on the same page, but it gets harder and harder to live and maintain a life there.
New Orleans jazz leader Adonis Rose spreads talent
If you’re from out of town or silly enough to live in New Orleans and have never seen Ivan Neville’s Dumsptaphunk, do yourself a favor: take a break from the screeching melodies, electronic pop and heavy-eye makeup at Voodoo Fest on Saturday afternoon and go see the greasiest, swampiest funk music that has permeated places like Tipitina’s for years.
This is a splendid video dedicated to New Orleans music. Lots of footage showing local musicians playing and the beautiful scenery from the city. Anders Osborne wrote and narrates this clip.
Rebirth Brass Band and the New Orleans sceneNew Orleans, being the birth place of Jazz, is widely known for its music. The volume of extraordinary musicians this city produces is staggering. Being a recent transpant from Boston, I’m still in somewhat of a culture shock, but I am getting along just fine. My first time seeing Rebirth Brass Band was at Harpers Ferry in Boston, Massachusetts back in the spring of 2007. All I knew of them then was that they were fun to see and layed down a groove you didn’t have a choice but to dance to. The rumors were right! I couldn’t stop moving my feet! They are a brass band consisting of a tuba, bass drum, snare drum, saxophone, two trombones, and three trumpets. They are each talented, and they are as tight as clockwork. These guys have ben playing together for 25 years and made there start in the Treme neighborhood of New Orleans. The have a regular gig at the Maple Leaf Bar every Tuesday night and this Tuesday I went.
Michael P. Smith Photography slideshow 
On Thursday, trumpeter Nicholas Payton will celebrate the influence of bebop greats Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker on the paintings of Jean-Michel Basquiat at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Payton, a New Orleans native who still resides there, had just returned from a few shows in Brazil when he learned about the parameters of the gig. He’s not familiar with Basquiat works at the museum, but he has been profoundly influenced by visual art in recent years.
“When you play what you see,” he says, “it comes from a different place than when you play based on what you hear. My last two records have been very visual — I’m dealing with colors rather than notes, treating harmony as a color. My music is more rhythmic, more effervescent. There are lines and circles.”
Home of the Groove's "Movers and Shakers With The Big "Q" Facto"
Today's tracks come from sessions produced by the great Wardell Quezergue in the mid-1960s featuring two undeservedly obscure artists, Guitar Ray and Sammy Ridgley. Though neither of these song about dancing is funk-related or has an identifiable New Orleans sound, their strong, move-motivating grooves are undeniable. It's hard to understand why the records didn't get these guys some recognition, at least in New Orleans. Blame it on the vagaries of the music business, and the small, under-funded labels with no clout that put them out.
My introduction to both tunes was on the Funky Delicacies/Tuff City 2002 double CD compilation of Quezergue productions, Sixty Smokin' Soul Senders, which was/is a good resource for hearing some very hard to find sides, despite the poor condition of some of the vinyl sources and inadequate mastering on the analog to digital transfers. Having heard them first was a great help when I chanced on auctions for the 45s, as I knew they were well worth pursuing.
Download: Dr. John & The Meters — Chalmette, LA (3/5/1973)
Bingo Parlour Profile #7: THE HAPPY TALK BAND 
people he writes about on There, There. The thing that stands out the most on the album is the collection of memorial songs. 'Pete, Kelly, Bucky, Yvette down the street " Allen counts off. 'There's a little bit of everybody on there." Although Allen seems to be a speedy eulogist, he says the process isn't directly contingent on bad news. 'Sometimes I get a line here or there, and I write the song in pieces. And then the latest tragedy comes around, and I realize I've been writing about it all along." There, There takes place in the storm's physical and emotional wreckage, but when it evokes the fallout of the disaster, it does so on the most personal of scales. And sometimes its presence is only theoretical, as with 'Sometimes Sailors," the story of a friend who shot himself a week before the levees failed. 'He had floating bodies in his head," Allen muses, wondering what difference, if any, it would have made if he'd waited and seen them made real. Happy Talk stage shows over the past few years have revealed a cautiously experimental band. Sometimes acoustic bass is replaced with electric and the songs are amped up to punk-rock levels. More often, with the addition of pedal steel, cello and, on the record, banjo played by producer Mark Bingham, Allen goes for a more understated complexity that buttresses his harsh voice (and sometimes harsher lyrics) nicely, revealing him as a shockingly good country stylist. 'I find I don't like blasting my voice over everyone all the time anymore," says Allen. 'I want to take my time and tell the story and make sure the story's heard."New Orleans meets Vermont: Former Phish keyboardist joins N'awlins funk masters on tour
PBS is set to release its first live album, "MOODOO," capturing that night in Burlington, and featuring McConnell on several songs. This CD serves as the catalyst that has now cemented PBS — which embodies the distinct and varied New Orleans musical flavor — with the Green Mountain State.TwilightZone's feature on the Neville Brothers' "Fiyo On The Bayou" 
The Neville Brothers, as a working unit, emerged as a result of 1976's magnificent Wild Tchoupitoulas project.
On that album, the Brothers and their Meters cohorts backed a group of tribal chiefs (including their uncle "Big Chief Jolly") singing traditional Mardi Gras "war songs" and marches. The Nevilles' 1978 debut left behind their New Orleans foundation and suffered because of it. However, 1981's Fiyo represents the pinnacle of the Neville collective, a percolating mix of R&B, soul, funk, and Caribbean rhythms that celebrates their Crescent City heritage. The standards, of course, are entrusted to Aaron's heavenly pipes, but it's the New Orleans anthems that would come to define both the band and the city. - Marc GreilsamerTwilightZone's feature on"LOUISIANA R&B" 1991 VA 
This CD is an eye opening collection of Jay Miller’s recordings in the R&B genre derived from various vinyl albums in the “legendary Jay Miller sessions” series. As ever, Miller combines his prodigious studio techniques and song-writing abilities to produce searing R&B that stands comparison with the best. Great Excello R&B!The Wee Trio sustains local vibraphonist James Westfall's New York connection
Jazz vibraphonist James Westfall didn't much care for the food, weather, attitudes and expenses encountered during a two-year New York residency.
"I was getting fed up with New York," he recalled this week. "It's fine meeting jerks once or twice a day, but after a while it builds up and gets to you. I'd catch myself saying smart-ass one-liners to people, and that's really not my personality. Everyone was struggling. It was a rat race, a little too cutthroat for me."
He's now happily resettled in New Orleans, where he studied jazz and launched his professional career. But one important New York tie remains: The Wee Trio, which Westfall formed with bassist Dan Loomis and drummer Jared Schonig, neighbors in Brooklyn.
Galactic -w- Chali 2na & Boots Riley performing "Immigrant Song"NOLA's Home Town Heroes: Inell Young
When you think of NOLA Funk and R&B drummers, you think of the Meters Ziggy Modeliste, when you think of female vocalists,Irma Thomas probably pops up, and for producers, its usually Allen Toussaint, but those folks have been covered (rightfully so) and received plenty of props far beyond the Crescent City.
Outside of the artists mentioned above, though, there is an entire world of locally produced records that are more than worthy. First up here is the Inell Young cut, The Next Ball Game.
Inell Young made only 3-45's, but each one was a winner. It's a shame she didn't make more, but, she was a troubled young lady. She died of a drug overdose shortly after her last recording session.
Her first 2 records were made under the guidance of local legend and funk maestro Eddie Bo, who made hundreds of records, some of which are deep funk classics. As you can hear, with drummer James Black on Ball Game, Eddie always brought the super heavy funk. To my mind James Black ranks with Ziggy somewhere near the top of the NOLA drummer pantheon and Eddie Bo, while perhaps not as sophisticated as Mr.Toussaint, easily out funks him. Alas, with Inell, we'll never know.
George Davis - Unsung hero of New Orleans Music PassesGeorge Davis was a guitarist, bassist, and reedman who did numerous sessions for Instant, Minit, and NOLA records in the 1960s. You can hear him playing on most of the June Gardner and Smokey Johnson tracks including the guitar solo in It Ain’t My Fault. That’s him also on Willie Tee’s Teasin’ You and playing bass on Earl King’s “Come On.” However, his biggest claim to fame (and it’s a big one) is that he co-wrote “Tell It Like It Is,” Aaron Neville’s smash classic hit. Davis also worked with Ernie K-Doe, Johnny Adams, Nancy Wilson, Jerry Butler, and others.
$200,000 National Competition to retain talent in New Orleans
9/26 MOODOO @ BB King's
HALF PRICE TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE.
PORTER, BATISTE & STOLTZ
GEORGE PORTER JR.
RUSSELL BATISTE
BRIAN STOLTZ
+ Featuring
PAGE McCONNELL of PHISH
