Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame to honor Fats Domino, Dave Bartholomew

Keith Spera, The Times-Picayune

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland will devote its 15th annual American Music Masters series to Fats Domino, Dave Bartholomew and New Orleans’ role in the birth of rock ‘n’ roll.

Jennifer Zdon

“Walking to New Orleans: The Music of Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew,” scheduled for Nov. 8-13, consists of evening lectures, interviews and film screenings at the museum; a day-long conference at Case Western Reserve University; and a culminating tribute concert at Cleveland’s Palace Theater in Playhouse Square. Confirmed performers include Bartholomew, Lloyd Price, Dr. John, Irma Thomas, Robert Parker and the Rebirth Brass Band.

The American Music Masters program, the Hall of Fame’s signature series, spotlights key figures in the evolution of popular music whose stories and contributions warrant wider recognition. Past honorees include Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, Lead Belly, Hank Williams, Louis Jordan, Buddy Holly, Sam Cooke, Jerry Lee Lewis, Les Paul and Janis Joplin.

“We’ve told a lot of great stories in this program, but we haven’t yet told the New Orleans story,” said Dr. Lauren Onkey, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame and Museum’s vice president of education and public programs. “Because it’s the 15th anniversary of the museum, it seemed like a great time. We want to do it justice.”

Only twice before has the series focused on a living musician, and two individuals have never been honored in the same year. With Domino and Bartholomew, the series will examine one of the most successful partnerships in rock history.

“When you think about choosing people for this event, the list narrows pretty quickly, because you’re looking for artists who made a huge impact,” Onkey said. Domino and Bartholomew “have been on our radar for a long time. Some people would say they created rock ‘n’ roll. We can all agree that they are some of the key people in the creation of the music.

“Their collaboration brought together different traditions and sounds in an exciting way. In terms of the work they did together, it’s a wonderful story that not enough people know.”

In 1949, Bartholomew was a respected trumpeter and bandleader working as a talent scout for Imperial Records. He “discovered” Domino performing in a neighborhood bar and became his producer and co-writer.

Their first collaboration, “The Fat Man,” is widely considered the first true rock ‘n’ roll record. Working at Cosimo Matassa’s studios in and around the French Quarter, Domino and Bartholomew crafted a remarkable string of hits in the 1950s and early ‘60s. Reportedly, only Elvis Presley outsold Domino in the 1950s.

In 1986, Domino stood alongside Elvis Presley, James Brown, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Sam Cooke, the Everly Brothers and Little Richard in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame’s inaugural inductee class. Bartholomew was inducted in 1991 in the non-performer category.

“It’s a great feeling and honor to be recognized at this point in my life,” Bartholomew said. “At almost 90, I look back at my career and I think about the people before us and the people that followed in our footsteps. I think we had a helluva ride and I thank the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for recognizing our catalog and our place in music history.”

Bartholomew has confirmed his attendance, and organizers hope Domino will attend as well. “We’ve had great response and cooperation from Dave and his family and Fats and his family,” Onkey said.

In addition to the announced New Orleans performers, the tribute concert is likely to include marquee special guests. Past performers at American Music Masters concerts have included Bruce Springsteen, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, and Aretha Franklin with Solomon Burke and Elvis Costello. Domino is not lacking in famous fans, as evidenced by the who’s who of stars on “Goin’ Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino,” a 2007 benefit CD produced by the Tipitina’s Foundation.

The Hall of Fame museum’s exhibits on the 1950s and rhythm & blues contain artifacts related to New Orleans. In conjunction with the American Music Masters program, some objects – a Bartholomew trumpet, handwritten musical scores to “Blueberry Hill” and “Walking to New Orleans,” a Domino shirt – will be grouped together in a small, dedicated exhibit.

All American Music Masters panels and interviews are archived at the museum. As part of its educational outreach program, the museum plans to create a course for high school students about Domino, Bartholomew and the early history of rock ‘n’ roll in New Orleans.

The tribute concert “is always a killer show,” Onkey said, “but we really see it as key to our education mission.”

NPR: Dave Bartholomew Steals Bob French's Show (With Permission)

(ed. note: I was in attendance for this set. Perfect end to the first day.)

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

Dave Bartholomew, New Orleans royalty. (Patrick Jarenwattananon/NPR)

An 89-year-old man was the highlight of a 100-year-old band's performance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Technically, trumpeter Dave Bartholomew isn't part of the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band, continuously operating in some fashion since 1910 and currently led by drummer Bob French. But Bartholomew is maternal kin to French -- and he's a living legend.

You know, here's the guy who helped write hits for Fats Domino ("Ain't That A Shame," "Blueberry Hill," etc.). The Rock And Roll Hall Of Famer, the wild card who's done everything in the record business (and is plenty wealthy for it), the man present at the transition of jump blues to R&B. In episode one of Treme, Davis steals a Dave Bartholomew box set -- the point being that this man has been anthologized in a box set. Oh yeah, and he knows his early jazz plenty well too.

French invited Bartholomew along to play on a few tunes. On "Fever," he stepped in for a concise plunger mute solo. On "At Last," he interjected seamless obbligato behind vocalist Yolanda Windsay. And French pointed to him to take the lead on "Tenderly," accompanied only by banjo and piano. His tone is beautifully clear, his phrasing immaculate, his articulation, high notes and effects gutsy. The man sounded great.

Yolanda Windsay sings, Dave Bartholomew plays, Bob French appears to approve. (Patrick Jarenwattananon/NPR)

Bob French is no joke either -- he's certainly nobility in town. He took over the band from his father, played with Fats Domino himself (at Bartholomew's nomination) and hosts shows on WWOZ, New Orleans' celebrated community radio station. He carries his share of the torch proudly. But all the cameras raced to the front when Bartholomew held aloft his horn, and with good reason.

Before the close, French riled up the crowd with a few "Who Dat?" calls. Months after the Super Bowl victory, Saints pride is everywhere, even for a fellow like French who precedes the team's existence by decades. That segued, of course, into "When The Saints Go Marching In" -- and its corollary dancing parade through the aisles, ceremonial umbrellas held aloft. That scene, below:

People who wanted to be in that number.

In Pictures: First Weekend of Jazzfest, Pt. 2

The Big Chief Monk Boudreaux(photo: Patrick Jarenwattananon/NPR)





Davell Crawford, next in a line of New Orleans piano whizzes. (Josh Jackson)




The bass drum of the Treme Brass Band, commanded by Uncle Lionel Batiste. (Josh Jackson)




Al "Carnival Time" Johnson, performing his hit with My Morning Jacket.




Harold Battiste. (Josh Jackson)




Jesse McBride. (Josh Jackson)




Lucien Barbarin, of June Gardner's band. (Josh Jackson)




Renald Richard. (Josh Jackson)


Dave Bartholomew, New Orleans royalty. (Patrick Jarenwattananon/NPR)



The Spy Boy for the Comanche Hunters Mardi Gras Indians. (Josh Jackson)

NolaFunk Lagniappe

Allen Toussaint throws a star-studded soiree in honor of Dave Bartholomew

In Allen Toussaint’s view, Dave Bartholomew deserves much more.

In the 1950s and ’60s, Bartholomew produced and co-wrote most of Fats Domino’s hits, making theirs the most fruitful creative partnership in New Orleans music history. Bartholomew largely shaped the New Orleans big beat, part of the alchemy that rendered rock ’n’ roll out of rhythm & blues.

Toussaint modeled his own fertile career as a songwriter and producer on Bartholomew’s. But despite Bartholomew’s induction in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters’ Hall of Fame, Toussaint believes he has not received his due.

Dr. JOHN - Goin' Back to New Orleans 1992

Dr.JOHN - Goin' Back to New Orleans 1992
Recorded at Ultrasonic Studios, New Orleans, Louisiana.

MarchFourth Marching Band

They might not have 76 trombones but Portland, Oregon's MarchFourth Marching Band generate a hullabaloo that'd make The Music Man skip with joy. With a 12-piece horn line, battery powered electric bass, and a 10 strong percussion core, M4 lustily engages big band tradition, happily swirling New Orleans jazz with Brazilian batucada, Italian exuberance, Eastern European folk, and dance floor fury. Like some great stomping brass-covered mastodon, they literally march fourth, rarely respecting stage boundaries and playing on fire trucks, ferries and more. Their latest, Rise Up (released October 13 on MarchFourth Music), is hearty spirituals for those no church can contain. Individuality lies at the core of this DIY unit, whose members sport unique outfits reflective of their diverse "real" world backgrounds as lawyers, stonemasons, metal workers, etc. Born on a Fat Tuesday, MarchFourth is a Fellini-esque block party for your ears, a ragtag circus hopping with sly, rabblerousing energy. Listen!

Garage A Trois creates instrumental avant-pop

Formed about seven years after Galactic, Garage A Trois made its stage debut in 2000. Following a few shows with the original lineup, the trio format got shelved after percussionist Dillon accepted an invitation to sit in.

“We loved having the vibes and tabla and the different percussion that Mike does,” Moore said. “It added a lot to the band and now, especially, it’s become its own type of thing.”

The Prehistory of New Orleans: Treasures from the Hogan

Listen Online:
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This program tells the story of how jazz emerged in the context of all the other African American musics that proliferated in late 19th and early 20th century New Orleans: blues, ragtime, Mardi Gras Indian music, vaudeville and minstrelsy, spiritual church music, and more. With our guides Bruce Boyd Raeburn and Lynn Abbott, we'll comb through a vast world of interviews, recorded music, photographs, ephemera, and curatorial knowledge at one of the great American music collections, the William Ransom Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University.

New Orleans Music in the Early Days of Recording

A photo-feature to accompany the Afropop Worldwide Hip Deep episode
"The Prehistory of New Orleans Music: Treasures from the Hogan Jazz Archive"
Photos and captions supplied by Lynn Abbott, Assistant Curator, Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University.

New Orleans Gets Wired: David Simon Turns His Sights on the Big Easy

The chronological series will explore life in New Orleans starting three months after Katrina devastated the city. If HBO orders more seasons, they’ll pick up a year after the first left off. Much like Simon’s previous shows, Treme is an exploration into American urban dystopia—but he hopes to one-up his earlier work while celebrating New Orleans’ virtues with the fervor of a high-stepping brass-band parade.

Treme is named after, but not based in, the city’s most historically significant and musically influential neighborhood (pronounced “truh-MAY”), home to the legendary Congo Square and the Rebirth Brass Brand, among others. Through the eyes of the people that live within its signature milieu of parades, jazz funerals, brass bands, Mardi Gras Indian tribes, bars and restaurants, the show will trace the city’s collective efforts to get back on its feet. “You’re going to watch the city being rebuilt, or not being rebuilt, year by year,” Simon says. “The whole thing is thematic to what New Orleans is, to what it represents in the American psyche. It’s an affirmation of why cities matter.”

Newman mines Big Easy music for 'Frog'

New Orleans in the early part of the 20th century - the setting of Disney's animated "The Princess and the Frog" - is territory that composer Randy Newman has trod before.

"I've been dredging those 30 months I spent in New Orleans for all I could in my life," he quips, referring to the summers of his youth. Songs on Newman's "Good Old Boys" and "Land of Dreams" albums feature the Big Easy as a backdrop, and Newman has long expressed admiration for New Orleans-born artists Louis Armstrong and Fats Domino.

So when producer John Lasseter asked Newman to compose seven songs and the score for "The Princess and the Frog," Newman didn't have to think twice. (After all, Newman's Oscar is for one of Lasseter's Pixar films, "Monsters, Inc." and six of his other 16 nominations are for Pixar songs or scores.)

Kermit Ruffins - Have A Crazy Cool Christmas

Basin Street jazz trumpeter Kermit Ruffins is celebrating the yuletide season with his November 10th release of Have A Crazy Cool Christmas featuring Christmas favorites such as "Silent Night", "Winter Wonderland" and several originals. With a style and sophistication that exemplifies New Orleans, Ruffins album will undoubtedly put you in a wondrous holiday spirit.

Fresh off the success of Livin’ a Treme´ Life, Kermit Ruffins is ready to add a little Bourbon Street jazz to the upcoming holiday season. Produced by Grammy Winner Tracey Freeman, Have A Crazy Cool Christmas is Kermit Ruffins’ bold foray into Christmas music. The album runs the gamut from yuletide classics like “Silent Night” and “Jingle Bells” to Kermit’s own rollicking originals like “A Saints Christmas” and “Crazy Cool Christmas.” Kermit is joined once again by former bandmates from the Rebirth Brass Band, as well as fellow Basin Street Records recording artist Irvin Mayfield and New Orleans hotshot trombonist Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews.

Evan Christopher: New Orleans music without the nostalgia

MP: You’re called “the Ambassador of the Clarinet.” What does that mean to you?

EC: It depends on who’s calling me that. ... Anytime you choose to advocate for a music that is tied to a specific culture, and you take that music other places, you have a responsibility to represent the culture through the music. I think that’s something ambassadors do. There’s a shortage of musicians doing that, in my opinion, especially on my instrument.

I’m benefiting from the fact that the clarinet was a very prominent instrument in early jazz. We’ve got hotels down here with murals of clarinets six stories high. In a way, it’s symbolic of New Orleans music, even more than

see also: Bebopified: Evan Christopher at the Dakota, 10/25/09: Concert review



Remembering the Riverboat President music club

It has been almost 25 years since the Riverboat President left New Orleans. The boat did weekend dance and concert cruises here from the end of World War II until the mid-1980s. Capt. Clarke “Doc” Hawley, who earned his New Orleans harbor license on the President in the mid 1960s, remembers that a band called the Crawford-Ferguson Night Owls played back then.

I’m thinking about the Prez – we always called it the Prez — because Mari Landy recently moved back to town after 20 years. She was one of the bow bartenders, along with Denise Berthiaume, who now owns LeMieux Galleries on Julia Street. They were also 20-somethings back then. A few weeks ago we had dinner on Frenchmen Street. Mari said that when the economy in Portland petered out, she and her husband found the lure of New Orleans too great to resist.

Arcade picks: THE REVIVALISTS

A brigade as diverse as the music they produce, these five Tulane and Loyola grads make up local band The Revivalists. Zach Feinberg (guitar) and Rob Ingraham (sax) both graduated from Tulane last spring. Dave Shaw (guitar/vocals), George Grekas (bass) and Andrew Campanelli (drums) studied at Loyola. Ed Williams, another Tulane grad, is not officially in the band but accompanies them on pedal steel occasionally. The members aren’t originally from New Orleans, but they now call the city home and draw inspiration from what they say is the “best live music city in the country, hands down.” They learn from the city’s jazz sounds and adapt them into their own styles.

New Orleans street performer “Grandpa” Elliott first artist signed to 'Playing for Change Records'

Grandpa Elliott Small, singing on the streets of New Orleans since he was a six year old, can capture a crowd with a single note. His mellow baritone makes the sounds of a busy New Orleans street fall away with its warm sincerity and while the blues may inform his lyrical harmonica playing, he has his own unique sound. Sugar Sweet, produced by Playing For Change founder Mark Johnson and Reggie McBride, was recorded in New Orleans with the Playing For Change Band. Grandpa Elliott has been singing with the PFC Band for the past year and they have developed an uncanny rapport. Their enthusiasm and ability to lay down sturdy, elastic grooves is evident throughout the album, adding sympathetic backing to Elliott’s soulful vocals and sinuous harmonica.

NolaFunk Lagniappe

Louis Armstrong in 2 Minutes, 53 Second

Louis Armstrong, “Dinah,” filmed on a sound stage in Denmark, 1933: a very early item in his filmography. This is a short and efficient answer for why he was and is important. You sense he’s building his brand — the stuff with the handkerchief, getting up in the viewer’s grill, popping his eyes at .55 — but it’s still pretty extreme, and exciting. Look at how he felt music, and moved to it. (Especially .10-.20, that davening kind of thing: James Brown did that too.) Listen to the way he chopped up rhythm, sailing his phrases over the beat. You want to say he’s imitating a trumpet when he sings, but then you want to say vice versa, so neither can be true. He’s continuous, playing or singing something nearly all the way through, making his body part of the performance.

CNN Heroes: New Orleans Kids Plant 'Roots Of Music'

The Roots of Music offers students free instruments, music instruction and tutoring through funding from sponsors and donations. The program runs every weekday from 4 to 7 p.m., year-round, and even feeds students a hot meal before sending them home safely with bus transportation.

Dining & Wine United Tastes: Saving New Orleans Culture, One Sandwich at a Time

At the New Orleans Po-Boy Preservation Festival on Nov. 22, as brass bands play and celebrators hoist drinks, serious-minded panelists will tell tales of long-lost po’ boy shops. They will speak of the import of this city’s signature sandwich, piled with roast beef and gravy or corn-flour-breaded and fried shrimp, slathered with mayonnaise, paved with sliced pickles and sliced tomatoes, strewn with shredded lettuce, wrapped in butcher paper.

Mardi Gras Indian Orchestra

Footage of the Mardi Gras Indian Orchestra practicing on Tuesday in preparation for their two-night stay at the Hi Ho Lounge. The Orchestra, who first performed during Mardi Gras earlier this year, features a long list of many of New Orleans’ best musicians.

Podcast: Four Minutes with the Panorama Brass Band

Colin Jones talks with Ben Schenck of the Panorama Jazz Band after the release of this year’s Keep on Swingin’.

James Booker

Footage of the great James Booker playing “Classified”. The person who posted it to YouTube says it’s live at Montreaux, but one of the respondents thinks it’s from French TV from 1976.

Sonny Landreth On Mountain Stage

Louisiana native and slide-guitar master Sonny Landreth came to prominence playing in the band of Zydeco king Clifton Chenier. As an in-demand session and touring player, Landreth has contributed to the work of John Hiatt, Kenny Loggins and John Mayall, among others. His 2000 album Levee Town has recently been reissued with bonus tracks.

Mirliton Festival Redux

The Bywater Mirliton Festival has been one of my favorites of the little fests that dot this town during the nine-month festival season. It’s hard to believe it’s been going on for twenty years. Yet, they are still tweaking the set up and moving the stage to the far end of the playground really opened up more space to walk around and check out the food and vendors.

Dave Bartholomew inducted into Hall of Fame

Music composer Dave Bartholomew - who collaborated with Fats Domino to produce such hits as "Blueberry Hill," "I'm Walkin'" and "Blue Monday" - has been inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.

Bartholomew, 88, was honored by friends and colleagues at a surprise private party at the Roosevelt Hotel in downtown New Orleans on Sunday. His career began in the 1940s and has included collaborations with Frankie Ford, Smiley Lewis, Earl King and Roy Brown.

Among those in attendance at Sunday's ceremony were jazz pianists Allen Toussaint, Dr. John and Ellis Marsalis. Marsalis performed Bartholomew's 1947 hit "Stardust" with Leroy Jones, and Dr. John performed his rendition of "Dirty People." Toussaint performed a song he wrote for the occasion called "Here's to You, Dave."

NY Post: 8 reasons to go to New Orleans now