Marsalis Family Chosen for 2011 Jazz Masters Award

America's first family of jazz can now claim the nation's highest jazz honor.

The National Endowment for the Arts announced Thursday that the Marsalis family is among its 2011 Jazz Masters Award recipients.

It's the first time in the program's 29-year history that the NEA is presenting a group award. The Marsalis family includes patriarch Ellis, a pianist and educator, and his four sons: trumpeter Wynton, saxophonist Branford, trombonist Delfeayo, and percussionist Jason.

The other 2011 Jazz Masters are flutist Hubert Laws, saxophonist David Liebman, composer and arranger Johnny Mandel, and record producer and author Orrin Keepnews.

The awards ceremony will be held in January in New York at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Big Freedia played NXNE (NSFW pics), playing Crush Fest in Brooklyn

c/o Brooklyn Vegan

words by Andrew Frisicano

Big Freedia & friends @ Wrongbar in Toronto for NXNE - June 18, 2010

"So what the hell is Sissy Bounce? Sort of depends who you ask. Katey Red, arguably the creator of the genre, suggests it doesn't even exist and instead insists it's just sissies producing Bounce. Other artists such as Big Freedia fully embrace the term. Take some of the most hypersexual, bump and grind you can imagine, remove everything but the sexed up chorus, speed it up, and then remove the sexual identity of the artist performing it. What, what? That's right. Sissy Bounce artists are purposely androgynous, sometimes referred to as queer, sometimes transgendered, a very direct intent is to fuck with people's heads about sexuality. It's easy to relate, or be offended when you see one sex singing about the other. But with Sissy Bounce you have no idea. This makes the performances just as important as the music itself, which is perhaps why it's stayed locked down for so long." [Sean Bonner]

From the pictures above and below, maybe you can tell that Big Freedia's Friday night set at Toronto's Wrongbar (as part of NXNE) was a crowd pleaser. Big Freedia, DJ Rusty Lazer and a pair of dancers held a master class on ass-shaking dance moves and a good portion of the crowd was happy to oblige, especially for the infectious bounce of songs like "Azz Everywhere" and "Rock Around the Clock." Freedia went from a tender acapella verse about settling down to a song with the hook "I got that gin in my system, somebody's gonna be my victim." The spectacle was one thing, but it was ultimately the songs, rumbling party mantras, that made it a great set.

The next night Big Freedia brought her act to the city's Yonge-Dundas Square (a free, very public stage surrounded by stores and restaurants )- it looks like they played there with considerably more clothes on. Still, Damian Abraham tweeted: "Big Freedia's performance in Dundas Square today made the Stooges show (which was amazing) look like a Peter, Paul and Mary Concert." (btw, our pics from the Stooges show he's referring to are coming soon).

Big Freedia and crew (that includes Freedia's DJ Rusty Lazer) will be back in Brooklyn for a Thursday night set at CrushFest at Public Assembly. The lineup for the June 24th show, which is part of Northside, also includes Yes Giantess, Fang Island, Iran, MillionYoung, Dinosaur Feathers, Anton Glamb, LE1F, Jason Pants & Chaz Requina (Palms Out Sounds), Denny Le Nimh and No Surrender. Tickets are only $5.00 until 3pm today (6/22) - then the price goes back up to $15. You can also try to get in with your Northside Badge.

More pictures from Toronto, a flyer for the Public Assembly show and a video from a Big Freedia show at Glasslands are all below...

Big Freedia

and the New Orleans Bounce Dancers...

Crowd participation...

Mother-In-Law lounge to close

c/o Music on My Mind

Betty Fox, the daughter of Antoinette K-Doe, announced on her Facebook page that she is closing down Ernie K-Doe's Mother-In-Law Lounge for good. The colorful bar at 1500 N. Claiborne in Treme has been difficult for Fox to maintain since Antoinette died on Mardi Gras Day, 2009. Fox was hospitalized March 1 after a car crashed into the bar, damaging the front door and leaving her "physically and emotionally tired of doing this. I'm grieving, too. I'm losing weight. I've been living upstairs with no plumbing, or electricity, and mold in the room for a year and a half."



"I know a lot of people might not understand," she said. "But my mother and K-Doe been gone, and each one of us has our own memory of them. This is just a building."



Fox plans to hold the last in a series of garage sales of K-Doe and Antoinette memorabilia as well as some of the bar's fixtures on July 10. Though she is behind in the rent and the building has suffered structural and mold damage, Fox holds out hope that the Mother-In-Law could be turned into a museum, an eventuality that seems unlikely without a serious financial intervention.

Music of Treme | Episode 10 | Season Finale - I'll Fly Away

c/o New Orleans Stuff

John Boutte ► The Treme Song

Louis Gottschalk / Hot Springs Festival Symphony Orchestra ► A Night In The Tropics

Ohio Players ► Ecstasy

Ernie K-Doe ► Te Ta Te Ta Ta

The subdudes ► Got You On His Mind

Steve Earle + Lucia Micarelli (Annie) ► This City

Bennie Motel + His Kansas City Orchestra ► New Orleans

Lloyd Price, Allen Toussaint, Wendell Pierce (Antonie Batiste) ► Stagger Lee


Miles Davis ► Green Haze

Juvenile ► Animal

Danny Barker + Baby Dodds Trio ► My Indian Red

John Boutte ► Bring It On Home To Me

Art Neville + Toussaint Band ► Cha Dooky-Doo

The Hawks ► Can't See For Lookin'

Treme Brass Band ► Just A Little While To Stay Here

Mardi Gras Indians ► Traditional

Mardi Gras Indians ► Indian Red

Mardi Gras Indians ► Hey Pocky Way

Irma Thomas ► Time Is On My Side

Soul Rebels + John Mooney ► Drink A Little Poison 4 U Die

Gardians Of The Flame ► Guardians Chant

Congo Nation Indian Gang ► Congo Chant

James Booker ► On The Sunny Side of the Street

Quintron + Miss Pussycat ► Swamp Buggy Badass

Clarke Peters (Albert Lambreaux) + Rob Brown (Delmond Lambreaux) ► Is You Is or Is You Ain't My baby

Lois DeJean ► Just A Closer Walk With Thee

Katey Red ► Melpomene Block Party

Juvenile ► Nolia Clap

Treme Brass Band ► Didn't He Ramble

Treme Brass Band ► I'll Fly Away

Steve Earle ► This City

VIDEO: Glen David and Revert "Peanut" Andrews on street music

c/o neworleans.com

Glen David Andrews has already gone to jail for playing his music on the streets of New Orleans. His cousin Peanut says that without music he may have ended up in jail or worse.

The two musicians led a group of musicians around Jackson Square Friday afternoon to protest what they called the harassment of other musicians in the French Quarter in recent days. Members of the To Be Continued Brass Band were issued citations earlier this week for playing music on the street past 8 p.m., violating a previously unenforced city ordinance.

"If it wasn't for the music, I don't know where I would be right now," Peanut Andrews said after the second line. "Coming up in the 'hood, in New Orleans. I might be in jail. I might be dead. But the music is what saved me, from playing right there in Jackson Square."

Upcoming: Soul Rebels Brass Band, High & Mighty Brass Band, DJ Davis @ Sullivan Hall

The Music of Treme: episode 9 - Wish Someone Would Care

c/o new orleans stuff

By popular demand, the music from the HBO series TremeEpisode 9, "Wish Someone Would Care"

Story by David Simon & George Pelecanos
Teleplay by George Pelecanos


hyperlinks connect to MP3s on our Amazon page. Most songs are 99¢ a download.

♫ John Boutte -- The Treme Song

♫ Smiley Lewis -- I Hear You Knocking

♫ Smiley Lewis -- Someday You'll Want Me

♫ Steve Zahn (Davis McAlary) -- Smoke That Fire

♫ Mardi Gras Indians -- Hoo Na Nay

♫ Jon Cleary -- When You Get Back

♫ Kermit Ruffins & The BBQ Swingers -- Honey Suckle Rose

♫ Li'L Wayne -- Fireman

♫ Sonny Rollins -- Blue Seven

♫ Lucia Micarelli (Annie) + Jamie Waterson -- Dixie Flyer

♫ Steve Zahn (Davis McAlary) -- Traditional 12 Bar Blues

♫ Jon Cleary -- More Hipper

♫ Kermit Ruffins & The BBQ Swingers -- If You Want Me To Stay

♫ Steve Zahn (Davis McAlary) -- I Wish Someone Would Care

♫ Jon Cleary -- Big Chief

♫ Kermit Ruffins & The BBQ Swingers -- Didn't He Ramble

♫ Kermit Ruffins & The BBQ Swingers -- Skokiaan

♫ John Magnie -- Agent 00 Soul

♫ Michiel Huisman -- I Like It Like That

♫ O.V. Wright -- I'd Rather Be Blind, Cripple & Crazy

♫ Natchez Calliope -- The Entertainer

♫ Lucia Micarelli (Annie) + Jamie Waterson -- Jambalaya

♫ Hack Bartholomew -- Down By The Riverside

♫ Lucia Micarelli (Annie) + Jamie Waterson -- Do You Know What It Means

♫ Natchez Calliope -- Ain't She Sweet

♫ The subdudes -- All The Time In The World