Bluegrass and Jazz Bands, With More in Common Than You’d Think

By BEN RATLIFF

Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

Del McCoury’s bluegrass group and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band did the proper adult thing on Wednesday night: they resolved their differences, surrounded by expensive claret.

On “American Legacies” (McCoury Music), their recent joint album, they’ve explicitly made their traditions melt together. This is an old story. Louis Armstrong did it with Jimmie Rodgers; Wynton Marsalis did it with Willie Nelson. The pairing is not a stretch, though it can seem to be. For the first half of the 20th century bands from putatively different traditions implicitly understood their common origins and points of crossover. And their repertories overlapped. Type in the song title “Corrine, Corrina” on YouTube and you’ll get Red Nichols’s jazz version, Bo Carter’s string-band blues version, and various shades of country into rock ’n’ roll from the Collins Kids, Ray Peterson, Brooks & Dunn, Big Joe Turner, and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Or you could do the same with “Milenberg Joys,” which the combined bands played near the end of their set at City Winery on Wednesday. It’s a song that Mr. McCoury — raised in the Black Mountain region of North Carolina — knew because he used to play it in Bill Monroe’s band, and the jazz group knew because Jelly Roll Morton wrote it. (The dynastic Preservation Hall band, from New Orleans, was founded in 1961 by Allan and Sandra Jaffe, parents of its current tuba player and director, Ben Jaffe; it has no original members, but the current lineup is full of familial and professional ties to the group’s past.) In that song, and in a few other places, the musicians did right by the audience: they made music subtly pan across the stage, from one band to another, so you could hear the difference in rhythmic temperament, whether in grooves or in solos.

At full strength 12 musicians stood onstage, jazz guys to the left, bluegrass to the right. The Preservation Hall band used funk and parade beats and slid into the beginning of each bar, making the “one” indistinct; by contrast, Mr. McCoury’s group bit down hard on it.

Although Mr. McCoury filled half the set with his high, clean, no-nonsense voice, there was a lot more Preservation Hall in the mix; trumpet, trombone, saxophone and tuba walked all over guitar, banjo, mandolin and string bass. (The singing styles of the Preservation Hall musicians — the trumpeter Mark Braud and the saxophonist Clint Maedgen — take up more space than Mr. McCoury, through various shades of showiness.) And the Preservation Hall band’s strong drummer, Joe Lastie, stamped an irrefutable, seductive groove deep into each song.

There were lessons and discoveries in all of that, but you wouldn’t want to overthink it; the music was too amiable and easy to like.

NY Times: At 100, [Lionel Ferbos is] Still Keeping Time as the Leader of the Band

By DAVE THIER

NEW ORLEANS — At midnight last Saturday, friends and well-wishers sang “Happy Birthday” to the trumpet player who led the band that night at the Palm Court Jazz Cafe. When they finished, the trumpet player turned to a few young women sitting behind him.

“Have you ever kissed a hundred-year-old man?” he asked.

The next night, jazz royalty from around the city turned out for Lionel Ferbos’s birthday party, amazed that one of their colleagues could have made it a full century. The wide Ferbos brood of tan-skinned Creoles with thin faces, pointy noses and impossible grace dominated the room, but men in seersucker suits with white straw hats and other appropriate characters filled it out. It being New Orleans, there was also a sparkly gold top hat, a red feathered sash and copious fleurs-de-lis.

Mr. Ferbos himself, with a brown suit, thick plastic glasses, deep jowls and bushy eyebrows, held court in the middle of the room, collecting birthday cards and hundred-dollar bills to pin to his chest in the New Orleans birthday tradition.

After a little while, he took the stage the way he has done every Saturday night for two decades, crooning old standards in a smooth, muddy voice. The bands are smaller than they were in the 1930s, he says, but most everything else is the same.

“It’s the same music,” he said. “We’re playing the same numbers we were playing 80 years ago.”

In a city obsessed with keeping its particular past breathing into the present, Mr. Ferbos stands as a rare example of the long journey that early jazz has taken to come to 2011 intact. He and his songs have stayed the same not just through Hurricane Katrina, but through Hurricane Betsy and the flooding in 1995 as well. They saw Vietnam, World War II, the Great Depression (he is the last surviving member of the New Orleans Works Progress Administration jazz band) and the invention of rock and roll. His face shows some of the wear of eight decades of playing. His music does not.

After the break, some local celebrities in attendance took the stage and modernized the music by a couple of decades. James Andrews, “The Satchmo of the Ghetto,” worked the crowd as audience members pulled out parasols and napkins and started parading. Irvin Mayfield, a bandleader and club owner, joined him in a slim-cut black suit and a white shirt with no tie.

Mr. Ferbos stayed in the corner, his knees bouncing in time with the music, his face occasionally appearing behind the outsize personalities dancing in front of him.

Mr. Ferbos was never a star. Until his considerable talent for longevity eclipsed his musical prowess, he was always an ensemble player. He played dance halls when his music was pop, and sit-down restaurants like the Palm Court later on. Unlike nearly every other musician in the city, he still reads his melodies off sheet music. He started playing before Louis Armstrong made improvising popular.

He was a worker, and still is, practicing every day to stay sharp. At his party, much younger men were yawning while he was still receiving a near-endless stream of birthday wishes.

A man went up to him and said, “Hope to make it next year!”

“Me too,” Mr. Ferbos replied, and laughed.

Watch: Preservation Hall Jazz Band on David Letterman

Upcoming: Rebirth @ South Street Seaport & Kermit @ Hiro Ballroom

My Spoonful: Big Freedia

Follow: forward o sign up Big Freedia June 28, 2011 hometown: New Orleans, LA categories: Hip-Hop, Rap Big Freedia - It's a Shame (Crazy Big Dunkey) Download Share: why you should check them out: In case you aren’t aware, “Diva” is the female version of a hustler, and Bounce-rapper Big Freedia is one Queen Diva. We’ve seen entire audiences – men, women and children – capitulating to her hard-hitting rhymes, provocative back-up dancers and stupefying trademark rump-shaking move. background check: Big Freedia didn’t define Bounce music – a vein of hip-hop that originated in the New Orleans projects – but she’s at the helm of its recent rise, specifically the derivative “Sissy Bounce”, sissy being the moniker for biological men with varied and ambiguous sexual identities. Born male as Freddie Ross, she’s been a mainstay in New Orleans clubs since dubbing herself Big Freedia and wowing crowds with her performances that showcase the fun and open genre known for featuring overtly gay and cross-dressing subject matter. The sound is a specific one, defined by a heavily rhythmic, repetitive beat and call and response refrain -each song keeps you literally bouncing up and down for the entire set. Though she’s been grinding for a long time, Freedia’s sexually charged themes and booty-licious stage parades were ripe for the viral video craze of the modern internet age. Freedia released An Ha, Oh Yeah in 1999 but it wasn’t until Big Freedia Hitz Vol. 1 dropped in 2010 that she really began to pick up steam outside of New Orleans and videos began popping up all over the internet demonstrating her energetic performances and infectious anthems. Mainstream success followed with a feature in the New York Times, guest appearances on HBO’s Treme and several key spots in major festivals. We’re not sure how Freedia makes the time for her own interior decorating business on top of everything else, but that’s exactly what she runs back in New Orleans, and we think it only makes sense; this boundary-shattering entertainer not only inspires those that admire her musical and personal values, but aesthetically, she’s a whole other force to be reckoned with. by Jaime Nabrynski website: http://www.bigfreedia.com/ on tour: click here buy more music: click here

WWLTV: Mardi Gras Indian Chief Bo Dollis receives major national honor

Credit: J. Nash Porter / NEA

Dominic Massa / Eyewitness News

NEW ORLEANS -- It isn’t very often that a Mardi Gras Indian travels from the streets of Central City to the Library of Congress, but Chief Bo Dollis will do just that in September. That’s when he’ll receive one of the nation’s highest honors for folk arts – a National Heritage Fellowship and $25,000 award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The award, to be announced Friday, is the nation’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. Dollis is one of nine recipients this year. Another Mardi Gras Indian icon - Big Chief Allison “Tootie” Montana, who died in 2005 - was honored with the same award in 1987.

Dollis, 67, is leader of the Wild Magnolias Mardi Gras Indian tribe. He has masked as an Indian for more than 45 years and become known even more for his musical talents, performing signature songs such as “Handa Wanda” with the Wild Magnolias.

In its citation honoring him, the National Endowment for the Arts praises Dollis for taking “the music and traditions of New Orleans from community gatherings to festivals and concert halls in cities all over the world.”

A native of Central City, Dollis became chief of the Wild Magnolias, named for the neighborhood’s Magnolia St., in 1964. As a young man, he first became exposed to the Indian traditions through the White Eagles tribe and later masked for the first time with the Golden Arrows.

Dollis and the Wild Magnolias performed at the first New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and have since performed with New Orleans music greats such as Allen Toussaint, Earl King and Snooks Eaglin.

Dollis and the other NEA honorees will be invited to travel to Washington, D.C. in September for an awards presentation and banquet at the Library of Congress, as well as a concert.

“These artists represent the highest level of artistic mastery and we are proud to recognize their achievements,” said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman in a news release. “Through their contributions, we have been challenged, enlightened, and charmed, and we thank them for devoting their careers to expanding and supporting their art forms.”

Dollis joins previous Louisiana honorees including the Treme Brass Band, New Orleans jazzman Dr. Michael White and Cajun artists Michael Doucet, Dewey Balfa and “Boozoo” Chavis, as well as the co-founders of the Louisiana favorites, the Hackberry Ramblers: Luderin Darbone and Edwin Duhon.

Nationally-known honorees in the past have included bluesman B.B. King, bluegrass icon Bill Monroe and gospel greats Shirley Caesar and Mavis Staples.

Village Voice: Beyond Jazzfest, Ruffled Feathers in New Orleans

Cultural growing pains in a rebuilt city

By Larry Blumenfeld

Near the end of Donald Harrison Jr.’s Congo Square Stage set on the opening Friday of this year’s New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, after the saxophonist segued from groove-jazz to bebop to something too rhythmically slippery to name, he walked quietly offstage. Minutes later, announced by tambourines and shrouded by red feathers with black highlights, he was back; only now he was Big Chief of the Congo Nation, enacting a tradition inherited from his father, who, during his life, was Big Chief of four different Mardi Gras Indian tribes. Harrison led his band through “Hey Pocky Way,” a modest 1974 hit for the Meters (and later for the Neville Brothers) with a title adapted from the Indians’ inscrutable language.

The Mardi Gras Indians are the most mysterious and essential of the indigenous cultures that define New Orleans; together with traditional jazz musicians, brass bands, and the Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs who mount Sunday-afternoon second-line parades, they’ve infused all strands of locally bred music since at least Jelly Roll Morton’s day. Beyond that, they’ve helped revive a city nearly left for dead in 2005. When Harrison fronts “A Night in Treme” at Brooklyn’s MetroTech Commons and Manhattan’s Jazz Standard this week, he’ll reference his ongoing roles—in cameo, as the basis for fictional characters, and as a script adviser—in HBO’s Treme, which showcases the primacy and power of New Orleans culture.

READ THE REST OF THE STORY HERE.

Win Tickets to Galactic @ Brooklyn Bowl

WIN TIX TO GALACTIC

// WIN 2 TIX TO GALACTIC //

featuring Corey Glover (of Living Colour), Corey Henry (Rebirth Brass Band) and very special guests Chali 2na (of Jurassic 5), Warren Haynes and Steven Bernstein (of Sex Mob)

Tuesday, June 21 – Friday June 24

How do we even begin? Four nights of insanity to say the least–but who wants to cut this unparalleled 4 night stint short, anyway? We’re amped to announce that the one, the only…Galactic are taking over on June 21-24th. This New Orleans-based supergroup is set to play some of your favorite tracks in the genres of jazz, funk, r&b, rock, gospel–and one that the band can take credit for exposing–bounce. Let us repeat the facts. Four nights. Four sets that are guaranteed to blow your mind. Five extremely talented musicians. One band. Two free tickets to any one show. Zero catch.

That’s right… we’re giving way 2 FREE TICKETS to any one of the four shows to one lucky fan. See below for entry details.

***

Tues, 6/21 (ft. Chali 2na, Corey Glover, Corey Henry) :: Doors at 6 // Show at 8 :: Buy Tix

Wed, 6/22 (ft. Warren Haynes, Corey Glover, Corey Henry, Jamie McLean Band) :: Doors at 6 // Show at 8 :: Buy Tix

Thurs, 6/23 (ft. Corey Glover, Corey Henry) :: Doors at 6 // Show at 8 :: Buy Tix

Fri, 6/24 (ft. Steven Bernstein, Corey Glover, Corey Henry, The High & Mighty Brass Band) :: Doors at 6 // Show at 8 :: Ltd. Tix Available at Doors

***

ENTER 2 WIN ON TWITTER

How do YOU rep NOLA in NYC? Best answer wins 2 tix to Galactic on 6/21-6/24! http://bkbwl.com/GALACTIC #GalacticBB

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ENTER 2 WIN ON FACEBOOK

How do YOU rep NOLA in NYC? Best answer wins 2 tix to Galactic on 6/21-6/24! http://bkbwl.com/GALACTIC

Upcoming: Zigaboo / Big Sam Co-Bill @ Hiro Ballroom

Listen Live: Preservation Hall Jazz Band @ City Winery

FROM NEW ORLEANS...

...to New York City, it's an FUV Live broadcast with Preservation Hall Jazz Band from the stage of City Winery! Listen live, tonight at 8pm.