NolaFunk Lagniappe

Harold Battiste: Offbeat Lifetime Achievement in Music

There are some people we can’t love enough, and one is Harold Battiste.

This year marks the first time that Offbeat has honored an individual three times: We selected Battiste as our first Heartbeat Award honoree in 1996 for a career of contributions to New Orleans music, then he was recognized in 2006 with a Lifetime Achievement in Music Education for the years spent teaching people about music and the music business—both in the classroom and outside of it.

Antoinette K-Doe: The Heartbeat Award

On a recent Tuesday morning, OffBeat’s Elsa Hahne visited Antoinette K-Doe at the Mother-in-Law Lounge as she cooked gumbo, red beans, jambalaya, stewed turkey, stuffing and baked macaroni for a welcoming party for visiting musicians in town for a benefit for Sweet Home New Orleans. I was there at the end of the night when K-Doe surveyed the crock pots, started bagging the leftovers and handed them to the last to leave.

“I spend my tip money on bags,” she says, stuffing jambalaya in one until it was full.

It was the start of a busy week in the Mother-In-Law Lounge, with events almost every night concluding Saturday evening with a benefit for singer Tommy Singleton, who needs help with his medical bills after major surgery. Since the bar opened in 1994, Antoinette has made it a place that serves a social good, and her focus has engendered goodwill throughout the New Orleans music community and around the country.

Porter Batiste Stoltz featuring Page McConnell - Soundcheck Jam from Relix on Vimeo.



Mardi Gras is coming: Let the good times roll

Parade floats are being built, costumes are being fitted and krewes are practicing. Let the good times roll! It's almost time for Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

Professor Longhair (born Henry Roeland Byrd, also known as Roy "Bald Head" Byrd and as Fess) December 19 1918 - January 30, 1980 was a New Orleans blues singer and pianist. He was noted for his unique piano style, which he described as "a combination of rumba, mambo, and Calypso", and his unusual, expressive voice, described once as "freak unique."

Huey Piano Smith - Don’t You Just Know It

Huey “Piano” Smith (born 26 January 1934 in New Orleans) is an American rhythm and blues pianist whose sound was influential in rock ‘n’ roll. Huey’s influence on New Orleans music in the mid 1950s was profound, and it was often said Huey Piano Smiths band was like a finishing school for Nola singers and musicians.[citation needed]

see also: Huey Piano Smith - High Blood Pressure



One Eyed Jacks - Great Bar in the Quarter

Last week, I attended a Garage-a-Trois concert at One Eyed Jacks. I forgot what a great venue One Eyed Jacks is. It's definitely a hipster joint and is decidedly unlike most other venues in the Quarter. This week I came upon a blurb in the Gambit about the venue that I thought would be worth repeating. There are not many good "alternative" bars in the Quarter, especially ones that offer great burlesque.

Big Sam's Funky Nation, Mardi Gras World, 1/16/09

There’s no better way to kick off the first official weekend of Mardi Gras 2009 than with a ball. And there definitely isn’t a better place to have a ball than at Mardi Gras World in Algiers Point. A cross between a fantastical carnival and a spooky wax museum, on Friday, January 16th, the large warehouse, which also serves as the home of the Big Easy Rollergirls, hosted The Pussyfooters’ Blush Ball. With a portion of the proceeds going to benefit the Metropolitan Center for Women and Children and the king of the second-line, Big Sam and his Funky Nation on hand providing the entertainment, the corset-clad marching ensemble who lead the all female Krewe of Muses parade brought in the season with swinging, sultry good time.


Glen David Andrews: A video by Lily Keber

Lily Keber made a series of short videos about Glen David Andrews' live recording of "Walking Through Heaven's Gate."

This particular video is one of the best portraits of a New Orleans musician and what New Orleans music is all about I've ever seen.

Beautiful. Just beautiful.

Breath of Life: IRMA THOMAS

09 This Bitter Earth (Featuring Ellis Marsalis).mp3 (5.73 MB)

[This album] made me go into areas of performing, as an artist, singing, that I’d never ventured into before, such as the song I did with Mr. Marsalis [“This Bitter Earth”]. I don’t usually get a chance to do standards like that. And it felt really, really good. With the audience I perform to, sometimes I can get away with stuff like that, but most of the time they want to hear my old ’60s material, and I accommodate them because that’s what it’s all about—you give your audience what they want. But, as a performer, it was a pleasure and an honor to be able to show people—with someone [like Marsalis] who’s been doing it all his life—that I can actually sing standards.

'1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die' includes dozens of local New Orleans musicians

Moon's list of New Orleans/Louisiana contributions:

Johnny Adams: The Real Me: Johnny Adams Sings Doc Pomus
Louis Armstrong: The Complete Hot Fives and Hot Sevens
The Balfa Brothers: The Balfa Brothers Play Traditional Cajun Music
Sidney Bechet: Sidney Bechet: Ken Burns Jazz
James Booker: New Orleans Piano Wizard Live!
Buckwheat Zydeco: Buckwheat's Zydeco Party
Fats Domino: They Call Me the Fat Man: The Legendary Imperial Recordings
BeauSoleil: Bayou Deluxe
Snooks Eaglin: New Orleans Street Singer
Mahalia Jackson: The Apollo Sessions: 1946-1951
Dr. John: Gris-Gris
Lonnie Johnson: The Original Guitar Wizard
Leadbelly: Where Did You Sleep Last Night?
Jerry Lee Lewis: Live at the Star Club, Hamburg
The Meters: Look-Ka Py Py
Jelly Roll Morton: Birth of the Hot
Aaron Neville: Tell it Like it Is
Randy Newman: Twelve Songs
King Oliver and His Creole Jazz Band: Off the Record: The Complete 1923 Jazz Band Recordings
Louis Prima: The Wildest!
Professor Longhair: New Orleans Piano
Huey "Piano" Smith: This is. . .
Willie "The Lion" Smith: The Lion Roars! His Greatest 1934-1944
Britney Spears: Toxic
Allen Toussaint: Finger Poppin' and Stompin' Feet
The Wild Tchoupitoulas: The Wild Tchoupitoulas
Lucinda Williams: Sweet Old World

The Best CDs of 2008: WWOZ Show Host Picks

Here are the best CD releases of 2008, handpicked by WWOZ show hosts. Many of the discs are by local New Orleans artists, while others are from national and international acts, and all of them make great stocking stuffers.

Mardi Gras in Manhattan

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