Jon Cleary: Interview With a Great New Orleans Piano Player

Jon Cleary is a pianist/keyboardist based in New Orleans. Originally from England, Cleary developed an early passion for New Orleans music. He has backed up many NOLA legends including Ernie K-Doe and Snooks Eaglin . He has also been a member of Bonnie Raitt’s band. He also leads his own band, Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen. He’s also very busy.

Jon Cleary onstage doing what he does best. (Photo Credit: JonCleary.com)

Listen to the full interview here.

Remembering Snooks Eaglin

c/o Burning Wood's Sal Nunziato

If there was anyone who embodied the spirit, love, and warmth of New Orleans, it was Snooks.

I have many memories of Snooks Eaglin, dating back to the very first time I set foot in the great city of New Orleans, as well as some great NYC memories, too. Snooks played here a lot, but I was told that after 9/11, he was afraid to fly. Normally, I'd give an earful to someone with that mentality, but coming from Snooks, I found it endearing. I think I would have just said, "I know, man. I know." He had done enough.

Barring some miracle, it doesn't look like I'm getting to New Orleans for this year's Jazz Fest. First time I'm missing it in 10 years. I guess I'll just have to listen to some Snooks and miss them both.

Here's a quick mix of some of my favorite Snooks Eaglin tunes. The mix opens with a (very short) story from Herman Ernst and then a live version of "Josephine" from a WWOZ tribute to Snooks from last March, with Ernst, David Torkanowsky, and George Porter Jr. The rest is all Snooks.

1. Snooks Story
2. Josephine
3. Profidia
4. By The Water
5. My Love Is Strong
6. (Mama) Talk To Your Daughter
7. Would You
8. I Get The Blues When It Rains
9. Red Beans
10. Young Boy Blues
11. Guess Who
12. Tomorrow Night

ZIP FILE

In Pictures: A Great Night In Harlem

A Great Night in Harlem - Apollo Theater, NYC 5/14/09



Davell Crawford remembers Snooks Eaglin - Apollo Theater, NYC 5/14/09


Dr. John, Irma Thomas & Deacon John - Apollo Theater, NYC 5/14/09


Deacon John - Apollo Theater, NYC 5/14/09

In Pictures: Snooks Eaglin's Second Line Funeral

c/o Jambase

Words & Images by: Zack Smith

If you live in New Orleans, or keep a good eye on it, you can't help but feel the giant loss our music scene has suffered in recent years. In just the last two years alone we lost Earl Palmer, Earl Turbinton and his brother Willie "Tee" Turbinton. I dare you to Google those names and not start singing along or tapping your foot uncontrollably.

The days are passing by, time is taking our masters and our teachers - our inspiration. I am here for only a few reasons, and those reasons all have to do with the LIVING HISTORY of this city. It is passed down. Its sounds are ricocheted from Uptown to the Treme, sent to my ears, which then move my feet.

In a recent two week span, New Orleans lost two of its heroes. Fird "Snooks" Eaglin and Antoinette K-Doe. In fitting fashion that only New Orleans can do, we set them free from a dirge to a ramble on the streets of the city they so loved. Their jazz funerals brought folks together, walking the streets of the city with a brass band leading the charge and funeral carriage in tow.

There are a plethora of articles, YouTube videos and Wikipedia entries on these two and I will let you decide what route you want to take in your own discovery. But, what you won't see out there in the wild, wild web is the legacy they left behind. They were powerhouses in sharing their love of their city and the common New Orleanian spirit to any and all. They will be missed.

These galleries contain images of two very traditional New Orleans jazz funerals - where Indians, Skull and Bones Gangs, Baby Dolls and brass bands rolled side by side with a horse drawn hearse - all gathered to set the body and spirit free.

For more on Snooks Eaglin, check out JamBase's Saturday Eye Candy salute that appeared the week he passed.

Snooks Eaglin :: 01/21/36 - 02/18/09
Second Line Funeral :: 02/26/09

Irma Thomas sings at Snooks Eaglin's Funeral Service

Young Men Olympian SAPC Assemble and get ready to begin Funeral Dirge

Drummer Shannon Powell begins "Closer Walk With Thee"

Funeral Dirge begins, as YMO walk side by side, slowly

Dirge tune segues into "Didn't He Ramble" and the procession "sets the body free"

NolaFunk Lagniappe

The Radiators - Recommendation of the month

A couple of weeks ago Dan Phillips recommended The Radiators to me. He runs the Home of the Groove blog, which is all about the New Orleans Groove. I had never heard of The Radiators, but I love New Orleans music like Dr. John and The Meters. So I was interested.

Then I got a message from Jay Rosenberg of Radz Records, who does publicity (among other things) for The Radiators, telling me I would probably like their latest release, "Wild & Free". Lucky me got sent a copy, and for sure: me like it lots!

Free Download to Honor Guitar Legend Snooks Eaglin: 1936-2009

"The first time I heard Snooks on record he astonished and thrilled me, and every time I saw him live I was moved and amazed by the depth and breadth of his taste, skill, and musical knowledge. He was called a "human jukebox," but he not only preserved a massive library of American music in his head and fingers, he transformed every note he touched. New Orleans and the world feel like a different place with him gone." - Elijah Wald, compiler/notes writer for New Orleans Street Singer

Singer and guitarist Snooks Eaglin passed away February 18th in New Orleans. His Smithsonian Folkways album New Orleans Street Singer was originally released in 1959 and reissued in 2005 with 7 previously unreleased tracks. Recorded by folklorist Harry Oster after he heard Eaglin performing in the French Quarter, New Orleans Street Singer was recently selected for the book 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die.

Eaglin, also known as "the human jukebox" for his wide and varied repertoire including electric blues, rock, jazz, and country, lost his sight as a child before teaching himself to play guitar. He went on to play and record with many other New Orleans musicians, including Professor Longhair, the Wild Magnolias, and Alan Toussaint. In recent years he was a regular performer at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

VIP Ladies & Kids Social Aid and Pleasure Club Annual Second Line

"Everything's Out In The Open"
Sunday, March 1, 2009 12noon to 4pm

Alligator Prepares New Release From Eric Lindell

Alligator Records has set a March 24 street date for Gulf Coast Highway, the new CD from soul, rock and blues singer, songwriter and guitarist Eric Lindell. Only a few short years ago, Lindell was known only to a small but enthusiastic group of fans in his native Northern California and his adopted home town of New Orleans. Once he hit the national music scene with his 2006 Alligator Records debut Change in the Weather, critics and fans around the world celebrated the arrival of a roots rocker with dozens of unforgettable original songs. His combination of sweet, blue-eyed soul with groove-laden R&B, swamp pop, funk and blues won him critical and popular acclaim across the country.

Recorded at Balance Studio in Mandeville, Louisiana, Gulf Coast Highway features 12 original songs and three inspired covers. The CD finds Lindell reaching new performing and songwriting heights. His soul-drenched mix of roots-rock, sinewy blues, swampy R&B and a hint of honky-tonk soul permeates every song. With musical help from some of the Crescent City’s finest players, including the Galactic rhythm section of Robert Mercurio and Stanton Moore on some tracks, Lindell has created his most fully realized lyrical and musical statement yet.

Check out the brand new music video for the Rotary Downs song "Body of an Outlaw" from the album Chained the Chariot. Edited, written, and directed by Jonathan David Evans and starring Brooke Lamm as the Outlaw.

Rotary Downs tour dates available here.

Trombone Shorty documentary wins award

The Beverly Hills Shorts Fest has honored Eric Alan Donaldson and L. Lonnie Peralta with the award for Best Documentary for the film they co-directed, produced and edited, “Trombone Shorty.” A “Troy Andrews is blessed with the gift of musical ear play and performance,” says Donaldson, Troy Andrews says, “There’s only 5% of the world, or 10% at most of people that really get a chance to do what they really want to do, and I happen to be a part of that. That’s the ultimate blessing right there.”

NolaCast: Episode #1- New Orleans Hip Hop

This is the debut of NOLAcast. It’s more of a test than a full podcast but features a couple of great Hip Hop songs from New Orleans own Slang Angus and E.O.E. (aka Atman Roots).

Irma Thomas, "Simply Grand" (2008)

Irma Thomas, whose Louisiana legend of a voice has darkened into a more expressive place, is taking a similar career tack. The new "Simply Grand," in fact, finds Thomas moving deeper into the emotional underpinnings of her best work at a time when safer environs would probably be more profitable.

Irvin Mayfield's Jazz Playhouse to open in Royal Sonesta

Irvin Mayfield's Jazz Playhouse at the Royal Sonesta Hotel on Bourbon Street officially opens Saturday, March 21, with its namesake trumpeter leading an all-star band. The club, in the former home of the Mystick, will initially present entertainment Thursday through Saturday, with plans to expand to four and, eventually, seven nights.

Snooks Eaglin Memorial Roundup

SomethingElseTribute: Snooks Eaglin

Snooks Eaglin, who had been battling prostate cancer, shot to prominence on the strength of 1959's "New Orleans Street Singer," a record that even today is a revelation. Mostly, because it sounds nothing like Eaglin, who was as modern and as inventive and as non-traditional as they came. Still, for all of the foot-stomping joys of his band recordings, "Street Singer" remains the surest testament to Eaglin's pure genius -- as a performer and as an arranger. Eaglin, born January 21, 1936, died on Feb. 18 -- just weeks before a scheduled return to the Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans. He wasn't, of course, your typical folk artist, much less a street performer, in the strictest sense of the word. Eaglin found material, even on "Street Singer," in less traditional places -- and clearly preferred the sounds he heard pouring out of dance clubs and passing car radioes in the Big Easy. They called his 1959 breakthrough "folk," but much of the material -- not least of which was "St. James Infirmary," by Hot Lips Page; and "Careless Love," done by both Kid Ory and Bessie Smith, among others -- was actually part of the mainstream black music of the day.


New Orleans guitarist Snooks Eaglin gets rousing jazz funeral send-off from Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas and more

In a tan suit and his trademark sunglasses, the late Snooks Eaglin lay in a casket near the Howlin' Wolf stage Friday morning.

It was the Warehouse District nightclub's first funeral.

"We've had people laid out here before," noted Howlin' Wolf owner Howie Kaplan, "but they were still breathing."

Eaglin, 72, died Feb. 18 of cardiac arrest related to prostate cancer. For decades the "Human Jukebox" dazzled with a finger-bending style of guitar wizardry that won him such fans as Robert Plant and Bonnie Raitt. Irascible and unpretentious, his gigs at the Mid-City Lanes and elsewhere were a New Orleans music rite of passage.

Video: Snooks Eaglin remembered

Video: Snooks Eaglin remembered

B' Side's "Ford Eaglin - I'm Slippin' In (Imperial 5802)"

Snooks Eaglin
1936-2009

Friends:

Today is a very sad one for me and many of you. Snooks Eaglin, the greatest
living New Orleans musician, died today.
 
Snooks was the consummate entertainer, and epitomized the spirit of New
Orleans music. His performances were as joyous as a second line on a spring
day: full of optimism, banter, and the best groove I ever heard in my life.
Like the best of our music, it was much more powerful live than recorded.
 
He has always been an inspiration to me; seeing him at the 1976 JazzFest
converted me back to playing blues, and was one of the major reasons I
returned to New Orleans.
 
Please raise a glass tonight to the man who brought joy to the life of many
of us, and was a great reason to live here.
 
I am including a short bio from the WWOZ website at the end of this email.
 
John Rankin

Jambase:Sat Eye Candy: R.I.P. Snooks Eaglin

WE BID FAREWELL TO THE "HUMAN JUKEBOX"

Justifiably legendary bluesman Snooks Eaglin died of a heart attack in his native New Orleans this past Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at the age of 72. The blind street musician rose to fame in the 1950s, picking up admirers with his incendiary guitar work and a voice that earned him the title "Little Ray Charles." The nickname that really stuck though was "Human Jukebox" because of Eaglin's incredible memory and ability to digest and morph anything on the airwaves. Unlike a lot of blues musicians, Eaglin sidestepped his genre ghetto to embrace funk, soul, pop and rock, but always filtered through his dirt field and concrete slapping beginnings. He played with nearly everyone of note in New Orleans over the years, from Allen Toussaint in the '50s to George Porter Jr. in the '80s, but a Snooks session always felt like his shindig regardless of the larger lights around him.

Eaglin offers some quality parenting advice.

This is the kind of tune (and delivery) that made Snooks such a hit with the ladies, who could always be found swaying like a lively riverboat at his gigs. The man was a massive charmer!

We conclude with an informal session at the Rock n' Bowl and the unrushed simmer of "Life in the Middle."

Snooks’ Funeral

By Alex Rawls

I resisted writing about Snooks Eaglin’s funeral yesterday, wondering if it was tasteless to comment on it. But later in the day at the visitation for Antoinette K-Doe at the Mother-in-Law Lounge, people asked how it was, so I’ll use that request as my guide.

It was very nice. It was generally the right mix of church ritual and secular expressions, so there was a ritualized comfort dimension, but it was a service about Eaglin and it couldn’t have been mistaken for anyone else’s funeral. Irma Thomas’ gospel performance was powerful, though her brief remarks left me feeling like she was asked to sing more because of her love of gospel than her relationship with Eaglin.

There was a lot of good humor in the stories Quint Davis and John Blancher told about life with Snooks, and there was a little strange drama in the emergence of James Jackson, the drummer in Eaglin’s first band, the Flamingos. He seemed to need to be central to things, standing with Eaglin at his coffin when Flamingo bandmate Allen Toussaint started his recollections of Eaglin. But who knows? Maybe he was closer to Eaglin than any of us knew, or maybe this was his first chance to feel like a somebody in 50 years. At funerals, I prefer to attribute the most generous motives to people’s behavior.