NolaFunk Lagniappe

Royal Fingerbowl reunites for a live recording as frontman Alex McMurray plans another solo project

Royal Fingerbowl coalesced around the Frenchmen Street music scene in 1995 to showcase McMurray as a Tom Waits/Leon Redbone/"Ice Cream Man"-era David Lee Roth composite singing evocative tales of down-and-out life in New Orleans. Barely a year later, having rarely performed outside Orleans Parish, the band signed with TVT Records, the New York label that broke Nine Inch Nails.

The trio -- McMurray, drummer Kevin O'Day and bassist Andy Wolf -- released its TVT debut, "Happy Birthday, Sabo!," in August 1997. By the time "Greyhound Afternoons" came out three years later, Nuccio occupied the drum chair; Perrine would soon take over on bass.

Home of the Groove's "Chuck Carbo: Good Things Come To Those Who Wait"


The Spiders. L-R: Chick Carbo, Joe Maxon, Oliver Howard, Chuck Carbo, Matthew West

New Orleans funk fans and collectors are probably most familiar with Chuck Carbo from the one-off 45 sides he made for and with Eddie Bo in 1969 that have appeared on several compilations; but, as seriously funky as it was, that record really didn't provide a great showcase for someone who is considered by many, including me, to be one of the city's best and most under-appreciated R&B vocalists. Although Carbo's career spanned over five decades, he put his talent on the side for many years to support his family with day jobs and did not have much of a solo singing career until late in his life. I have had this post simmering since Chuck's death at 82 this past July. My perpetual state of project overload often keeps me from getting to HOTG posting in a timely manner; but, things do eventually come around for those who wait. If you're still with me, let's take a listen to some Chuck Carbo cuts with good grooves as well as vocals, and give some props to another great one who's now gone.

Live: Quintron and Miss Pussycat are Swamp Buggy Badasses at Santos

Quintron and Miss Pussycat
Santos Party House

Monday's main attraction was sexy cartoon lady Miss Pussycat, the hands behind VBS's puppet “soap-opera” Trixie and the Tree Trunks, and her organ-taming, jam-skating life-partner Quintron. Two nights before, Pussycat opened an art show at Live With Animals in Williamsburg; Monday was the official release party for Too Thirsty 4 Love, Quintron's month-old, 11-song bogland bonanza that features him on the cover with fangs, a python, and a grinning older woman in a see-through top. He and Andrew W.K. are apparently old pals—this was the New Orleans couple's first local headlining performance in years—and neither one gave a shit that tomorrow the rest of us had to work. “Do you realize how many people around the world would give anything to be in Manhattan?” screamed Andrew, who these days uses shampoo and wears a wedding ring. “Let's enjoy this moment!”

Fats Domino Documentary To Air On PBS

When Katrina swamped his Lower 9th Ward neighborhood and 80 percent of his hometown with floodwater, Domino lost his home, three pianos, dozens of gold and platinum records and other memorabilia. So, when the 80-year-old singer took the stage at a popular New Orleans club for the first time after the 2005 storm, fans cheered and cried as he bopped the upbeat strains of "I'm Walkin"' and crooned "Ain't That a Shame," along with a host of other hits. Footage from that appearance in May 2007, his first and last since Katrina, is the basis of a new documentary, "Fats Domino: Walkin' Back to New Orleans," that will air on public broadcasting stations over the next few years.

see also: R&B music legend Fats Domino documentary has special meaning to local filmmakers



ON THE ROAD WITH PHJB #7: Charlie Gabriel & Clint Maedgen duet backstage





Voodoo Experience 2008 (The Hidden Voodoo)


Paul Sanchez and The Rolling Road Show

Voodoo Experience: The Tenth Ritual

Bonerama is a brass band of a completely different sort. They carry no trumpets or saxophones, but they do feature trombones, sousaphones, one electric guitar and drums. They not only have updated the sound, but they have redefined it. On Saturday, their version of "When The Levee Breaks" was done as if Led Zeppelin arranged it. Since the festival was at the edge of Bayou St. John in New Orleans (an area that experienced flooding after Hurricane Katrina), the presentation was completely surreal.

Immediately following Bonerama on the WWOZ Stage was Ivan Neville and Dumpstaphunk. Yes, he's one of those Nevilles. His band, moreover, is quite simply the best jazz/funk/rock fusion outfit to emerge from New Orleans since the Meters. Taking the stage at dusk, the band delivered a blistering set which included "Stinky," "Livin' In A World Gone Mad" and "Turn This Thing Around."

Movie role hardly a stretch for jazz musician

"Rachel getting married . . . ," Donald Harrison Jr. muses before the friends and family assembled at a fictional wedding. The setting is director Jonathan Demme's latest critically acclaimed work, starring Anne Hathaway; Harrison's opening line is the film's title.

Harrison's character, a jazz musician and close friend of the bride's father who is a music industry executive, isn't a stretch. Yet Harrison inhabits it with the same arresting blend of charisma and humility that he brings to the various roles he plays in his native New Orleans. They include jazz saxophonist and bandleader, with a new album, "The Chosen"; mentor to young players through a weekly nonprofit workshop; and Big Chief of Congo Nation, extending the Mardi Gras Indian tradition he inherited from his late father.

Po'Boy Preservation Festival This Weekend in New Orleans

It's good to know a po'boy preservation society exists. These dedicated folks organized the second annual Po'Boy Preservation Festival, happening this Sunday on five blocks of Oak Street in New Orleans. We were at last year's inaugural fest, and this year the same po'boy fanaticism is expected—panelists on the sandwich's history, a taste-test from local vendors, and even some love for the po'boy's Italian cousin, the muffuletta.

NolaFunk Lagniappe

NPR’s "A Jazz Journey From Its New Orleans Birthplace"

NPR continues its jazz series with a look at the legacy of New Orleans jazz music. (click on the link above)

Farai Chideya talks with three notable musicians from the Crescent City: Irvin Mayfield, a trumpeter, composer, and bandleader; Irma Thomas, who is known as the queen of New Orleans soul; and Greg Davis, a trumpeter and member of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, one the most famous marching bands in New Orleans.

Spiders singer Chuck Carbo, 1926-2008

Hayward "Chuck" Carbo, lead vocalist of 1950s New Orleans rhythm & blues quintet the Spiders, died July 11 after a long illness. He was 82.

The Spiders featured Mr. Carbo and his brother Leonard "Chick" Carbo. "We knew them since we were kids," Aaron Neville said. "The Spiders were the premiere New Orleans group. I won't say a New Orleans singer -- Chuck was a great singer, period."

"Chuck was very close to my family," Mac "Dr. John" Rebennack said. "More than Johnny Adams, Aaron Neville and Earl King, that was my mother's favorite of the local guys. Everybody loved this guy because he had such a special thing. The Spiders opened a lot of doors for New Orleans rhythm & blues."

see also: Vinyl Word's Chuck Carbo RIP



Check out video of Dr. John at the 2008 Jazzfest HERE.


Trombone Shorty: An old pro at 22

Troy Andrews, also known as Trombone Shorty, is only 22, but he’s had the experiences of an old pro. The trombonist and trumpeter grew up in the Treme section of New Orleans, where the music hangs thick in the air.

“Growing up in a musical family,” Troy Andrews says, “in a household that had thousands of instruments laying around — some broken, some that weren’t — they were like toys to me.” And vice versa. He remembers being 6 years old and playing a Big Wheel slung over his shoulder like a tuba.

Mardi Gras Indians 2007


Mardi Gras Indians 2007 from Alexia Prichard on Vimeo.



Grayon Capps Releasing Rott 'N' Roll

On September 9, Grayson Capps will release his fourth album, Rott 'N' Roll, on Hyena Records. The long-player's title stems from a phrase used by fans to characterize the music of the southern troubadour. Prostitutes, alcoholics, vagrants and drifters often inhabit Grayson's songs, while his live performances are ignited by equal doses of raucous Southern soul, back-country stomp and roadhouse blues. For Grayson himself, Rott 'N' Roll has come to represent the state of mind needed to play uncompromising roots music as a means for survival in the Dirty South; the yin and yang between the debauchery of life on the road and the come down upon returning home.

420 New Orleans Music Show #22

John Sinclair plays music from the Crescent City

For Wynton Marsalis, ‘The cause is people’

You are from New Orleans; you were born there. American jazz was born there. How did Hurricane Katrina call you personally into action?

Out of sadness, and horror. I guess you feel that towards any person who got hit by a car, but in this case its your hometown, so its as if something happened to your family or your mother. So all of us felt we needed to help. I got publicity because I'm known, but so many New Orleanians, even now, are doing what they can and doing everything in their power. A lot of people call me, asking what they can do to help, intelligently, to rebuild the city. We are all still running around trying to figure that out.

Feature on New Orleans Musicians' Clinic

New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic (NOMC), a one-of-a-kind clinic for musicians, was founded with the lofty goal of trying to “change the course of the careers of our young musicians in New Orleans, to keep them thriving into their 90s (yes, we have musicians still blowing their trumpets at 96)” says President/CEO, Bethany Bultman. The organization just celebrated its tenth birthday, and while elated at its success, hopes to become so redundant as they advocate for universal health care so that one day they will become unnecessary. We thought it only fitting to include the group in our New Orleans issue of DIY City Mag. Music is arguably one of the oldest DIY activities. And what is New Orleans without the sounds of its music? Fortunately NOMC was in place before the storm.

This week's music picks from Basin Street

Listen to selections from Henry Butler, Irvin Mayfield & Dr. Michael White HERE.

George Porter Jr. - Irving Plaza, NYC 7/15/08. (Photos by Jeremy Gordon)